Road Trip
by Mako1
Summary: Arsenal, Superboy, Green Lantern, Robin, Kid Flash, and Firewall, aka Lian Harper, Chris Kent, Milagro Reyes, Damian Wayne, Iris and Jai West, the Teen Titans. Summer Vacation has started and the team decide to take a month long road trip across America to see the sights and have some fun.
1. Utah

Road Trip - Utah

_A/N: Arsenal, Superboy, Green Lantern, Robin, Kid Flash, and Firewall, aka Lian Harper, Chris Kent, Milagro Reyes, Damian Wayne, Iris and Jai West, the Teen Titans. Summer Vacation has started and the team decide to take a month long road trip across America to see the sights and have some fun._

It had been brought up a few weekends prior to school getting out for the summer. Iris and Jai had just graduated, while Milagro and Lian officially had one more year left before they graduated from high school. Damian and Chris had graduated the year before. Connor, Bart, and Tim had all agreed that it sounded like a great idea. Cassie was a bit more reserved in her judgement, but even she thought that the team could have a good time on the open road for a month. Cassie's reservations were relieved a little when Milagro assured her that she was a decent mechanic and could handle most problems should they arise.

"Papi lets me work in his shop. I can manage pretty much anything from a big rig to a sports car," Milagro stated. To the Amazon's surprise, all of the teens claimed to have decent mechanic skills in the event a problem should arise.

"What's our Dad do for a day job?" Jai asked.

"That he taught us, because it's such a handy skill to have?" Iris added.

"You've met my Dad and Grampa Ollie, right?" Lian asked. "They haven't needed to take a vehicle to a shop to get fixed since before I was born."

"I can fix a tractor," Chris added with a shrug.

"You doubt I possess mechanical skill?" Damian snorted.

"Okay, okay, okay…point received loud and clear," Cassie had laughed, before deciding that the teens could handle anything that came up.

The evening before they were to depart, the six of them were in a large private garage inspecting their home away from home. "Father has a promotion coming up and he wants us to give this a shake down," Damian explained. He went on to explain that Bruce Wayne had come up with the idea of a coach tour to promote an upcoming project launch set for the following year at Wayne Enterprises.

"Cool, pop the hood," Milagro stated. Damian did so and Milagro smirked. "These things are actually pretty easy to maintain," she purred. "We see them a lot during the winter. Retired folks like the open road idea for retirement."

"I also have spare parts enough to completely rebuild the engine if need be," Damian added. Milagro went to inspect the other major mechanicals on the luxury coach and paused at the power supply.

"That's solar," she muttered. Lifting off, she flew towards the roof of the coach and saw how it was designed. "And those are solar panels."

"Father wants us to attempt to drain this to the point that we would need to hook up to power when we're stopped," Damian proudly proclaimed.

"Three teenage chicks and nerd boy?" Lian commented, jerking a thumb at Jai. "No sweat." Jai glared at her and backhanded her on the shoulder.

"Okay it's all state of the art and everything," Iris huffed.

"But what does the inside of this thing look like?" Chris added with a chuckle. Damian opened the door and waved for his teammates to enter.

"Holy shit!"

"Ay Dios mio!"

"Damn dude!"

"You really need to tell Bruce to stop being such a cheap skate," Chris joked as he took in the luxurious interior.

"Dibs on the master suite!" Iris proclaimed, throwing her arms over Lian and Milagro's shoulders.

"Fine," Damian agreed, taking up a large remote and pressing a few buttons. Sections of the coach began to move outwards and several pieces of furniture began to change. "Fourteen hundred feet of living space," Damian bragged when everything settled into place.

"Can we just head out now?" Lian laughed as they checked the coach out.

"We're leaving at five in the morning," Damian stated. "And I need a volunteer to drive the land rover," he added, jerking a thumb towards a window and the sleek black vehicle parked outside.

"I'm driving!" Lian proclaimed.

"Shotgun!" Iris chimed in.

"You'll be able to get us out of the city?" Damian asked Milagro. She nodded and replied that it wouldn't be a problem. She'd test driven enough coaches of similar design that she felt confident.

"Once we're past Reno, it's all open road right?" she asked. "One of you guys can take over then." She added when she got several nods.

Itinerary set, the teenagers returned to the garage the following morning just before five and set out on their trip. True to her word, Milagro managed the large coach easily and they were soon on the Oakland Bay Bridge heading east. They stopped outside of Sacramento and the land rover suddenly made sense to the others. After Milagro parked the coach at a mall, they all piled into the smaller vehicle and went grocery shopping. They returned and between the six of them, managed to transfer the food from the land rover to the coach in no time. Chris went to the master suite to take a nap as he would be taking over from Milagro later, and they set out again. Chris had company in the form of Damian's cat, Nefertiti. He'd said the night before that he couldn't dream of being gone for so long and not bringing her along.

In the land rover, Iris snoozed off and on for a while until a screen came to life and her brother's grinning visage greeted her and Lian. "We can stay in constant contact via this system, cool huh?"

"Useful," Lian admitted. The system proved quite useful and it made it seem that they were all travelling in the same vehicle.

"Great Jai," Iris murmured and returned to her catnap.

An hour before noon, Damian instructed Lian to pull off the highway. "There's a rest area near the reservoir. We'll have lunch and swap out drivers."

"Rye Patch Reservoir," Lian commented as she read the sign. "Where's the rye?"

"That might be a patch of it right there," Iris stated, pointing to a dead clump of tussock on the side of the road.

"I don't think much rye grows out here in the desert," Chris chuckled.

They found an area where they could park the land rover next to the coach. Lian and Iris ambled over to the coach and got comfortable in the dining area/kitchen. "How's the snack stash looking Irey?" Jai asked as he went about making sandwiches with Chris.

"Probably take two or three of those, and I'll be good," she informed her brother.

"We've got what? Another four, four and half hours of driving before we hit West Wendover?" Lian asked. Damian nodded. "I'm good to go. If I do want a spell, we can pull off and swap out and catch back up to you guys no sweat," she added.

"If you are certain," Damian shrugged.

"Fine by me, I'm having a ball playing tourist," Iris chuckled. Milagro cracked up.

"I'm loving the descriptions of the scenery," she said between chuckles.

"Beware of deer!" Iris warned. "There's a pack of springbok hiding right behind that clump of dead weeds right there!" The teens howled in laughter at some of the sights they'd already seen and the creative descriptions Iris had come up with for them. They ate quickly and prepared to hit the road again. Chris took over driving the coach and commented that Milagro hadn't been kidding.

"The tractor at Grandma's is more difficult to drive than this thing," he stated as they got underway.

"Ese, if you can drive a tractor, this thing is gonna be a breeze," Milagro stated from the passenger seat.

Once they reached West Wendover, Lian pulled off to allow Chris to drive ahead of her, before following the coach to the RV Park they were going to be staying at for the next two nights. Damian went to check in and pay for their reservation while the others unhooked the trailer the coach had been towing. Chris pulled the coach out of the way and got out to hook the trailer to the back of the land rover. Damian returned with their assigned spots for their stay. Lian followed and saw that she was parking across from the coach. "I hope they're all like this," Iris stated as Lian parked and they got out.

"For real," Lian agreed. "Need a hand?" she asked Chris as he hooked the coach up to the water and sewer systems.

"Nope, got it. We won't need power. Damian wants us to test the solar system," he replied, when Iris pointed out the electrical outlet.

Inside the coach, Damian and Jai were particularly interested in getting underway in the land rover. Milagro snorted at the pair of them as she finished putting the finishing touches on the dinner she was preparing for later. "Ready? We still have several hours of daylight to burn," Damian asked when Chris, Iris, and Lian entered the coach.

"I take it that you're driving," Lian teased as she handed over the keys to the land rover.

"Of course," Damian grinned.

"He's happy and I find it disturbing," Chris chuckled.

"Dude! Ducatis...Bonneville Salt Flats," Jai grinned, pointing east.

"I'm gonna go change and I'll meet you guys over there," Iris stated, shaking her head. She had lightweight riding gear that vaguely resembled her Kid Flash costume.

"I like that plan," Chris exclaimed, taking a seat to wait for Iris.

"Me three," Milagro smirked and held up her power ring.

"Great…leave me with these two," Lian snorted, before following Damian and Jai back to the land rover. Two minutes later as they crossed over the state line, a red and gold blur shot past them. Jai was able to follow his sister for a few moments before she tore off the highway and onto the fabled salt flats. "There go Mila and Chris," Lian declared, as she pointed out two specks in the sky. Damian pulled off a few minutes later and stopped at a designated parking area. Jai bolted out of the land rover and went to get the motorbikes out of the trailer. Milagro landed nearby and wandered over to join Lian who was shaking her head at the two boys. "Where are Chris and Irey?"

"They're at the northern end of the flats racing each other," Milagro replied. She morphed her costume to resemble riding gear when Jai called out to the two girls. "What the hell is all in there?" Milagro gaped, as Jai backed an ATV out first.

"An ATV, two Ducatis, and a BMW touring bike," Damian replied from inside the trailer.

"No expense spared," Milagro muttered as she straddled the ATV.

"Not when I saw where we were planning on going," Damian smirked at her.

"You riding, Lian?" Jai asked as he backed the second Ducati out of the trailer.

"Maybe later," she shrugged. She grabbed a blanket from the land rover and tossed it up to the roof. Grabbing a camera and bottle of water, Lian then climbed atop the land rover and made herself comfortable. "Incoming," she said a moment later, having spotted a plume of white heading their way.

Iris skidded to a stop a few hundred metres from where the others were, sending up a huge plume of salt into the air. She jogged the rest of the way as Chris alighted to the ground next to the land rover. "This stuff is slick," Iris stated, pointing to the salt encrusted ground. "Take it easy getting up to speed, but once you get there…knock yourselves out!" Iris took off again a few minutes later, and led Milagro and the boys towards the race tracks.

"Mind some company?" Chris asked Lian.

"Nope, c'mon on up," she invited. Chris floated up to join her and take in the view. "I can't believe we have the whole place to ourselves," Lian commented a moment later.

"No kidding. I figured it would be packed," Chris admitted. "Actually," he smirked suddenly. "Grab the camera," he instructed, before picking Lian up and lifting off into the air.

"Oh wow!" Lian enthused as she looked down. "You can totally see the state line!" She took several pictures of the stark line marking the border between the two states. Black basalt in Nevada sat perfectly next to the stark white salt marking Utah.

"I think this is one of the only places in the world where the border is so clearly defined…at least by nature," Chris said. Lian looked around and spotted their friends at the race tracks. She zoomed in and got a few shots of them from her aerial perch. Chris suddenly heard the sounds of an SUV and looked for it. "Looks like we're about to have company," he said drifting back down to the land rover.

"That's cool," Lian stated as he set her down on the roof of the land rover. "I got some great shots, thanks!"

"I figured you'd get a kick out of that," Chris grinned. "Tripped Mila and I out when we spotted it on the way over."

By the time the SUV joined them, they looked as though they hadn't been airborne just a few moments earlier. Lian called over their comms and alerted the others that they were about to be joined out at the tracks. "Florida? Damn," Lian remarked as she spied the plate on the SUV. A middle aged woman got out from the driver's side and gave the pair of them a wave. They waved back. Two men that closely resembled the woman got out and went to unload a pair of dirt bikes from a trailer behind the SUV.

"Where'd you kids drive in from?" the woman asked, as she got a chair out and made herself comfortable.

"San Francisco," Chris answered politely. He introduced Lian and himself, and the woman replied in kind by stating her name was Sherry and her two brothers were living out a lifelong dream. "That's at least two of our friends out there," Chris chuckled.

"Jim and Dave have been going on about making this trip since we were all little," Sherry said, rolling her eyes. Lian called out the warning Iris had stated earlier, about taking their time to get to speed because the salt was slick. Jim and Dave waved their thanks and headed out towards the tracks.

"You got stuck babysitting?" Lian joked with Sherry.

"Sad too, as I'm the youngest," Sherry chuckled.

Iris and Milagro were lining up with the Ducatis when Sherry's brothers joined them. "On three," Milagro said.

"Three!" Iris called out and the two girls took off down the track.

"How are the conditions?" Dave asked as he and Jim pulled alongside the ATV.

"Fantastic!" Jai grinned.

"Exhilarating," Damian added.

"What are you kids racing?" Jim asked.

"Ducatis," Jai replied, and Damian gave the specs of the bikes.

Iris and Milagro returned several minutes later and Milagro was practically bouncing in excitement. "Two forty five! Damn Ese, those are some sweet bikes!" she grinned. "Oh Hola!" she greeted their company.

"Hi," Iris grinned. "What did you hit?" she asked Milagro.

"Two forty five point seven," Milagro replied, checking the readout.

"Two forty seven point two!" Iris cheered, and blew a raspberry at the other girl.

"Oh hell no," Jai muttered. "We are not losing to you two," he added, going over to Iris.

"Indeed," Damian growled as he indicated that Milagro get off the bike with a jerk of his thumb.

"What were their speeds?" Dave asked as the two boys took off again.

"Two thirty nine and two forty," Iris smirked.

"Ouch."

"It might register eventually that the physics are in our favour," Iris chuckled.

They continued to take turns racing down the tracks for another hour or so before deciding to call it a day. Dave and Jim stayed behind and raced for a while longer. "Kicked their asses didn't you?" Lian smirked at Iris and Milagro.

"Yup," Milagro laughed.

"Shut up," Damian muttered.

"We're smaller and lighter," Iris suggested to Damian and Jai in a loud stage whisper. Jai replied with an unsavoury comment in Korean that had Iris howling in laughter.

"Your brothers will be back in a bit," Milagro informed Sherry. "We can stay here and keep you company until then if you like?"

"We won't mind," Damian added.

"That's sweet kids, but I can see them coming now. You kids head on out," Sherry politely replied.

The teenagers lingered until Dave and Jim returned to their sister before returning to the RV Park. Jai took the opportunity to wash the salt from their bikes and ATV, while the others headed for the coach. Lian suggested that they could clean up while she and Chris made dinner. Milagro went outside after taking a quick shower, to where Lian and Chris were cooking and asked if they needed a hand.

"Tortillas are all yours," Lian stated as Milagro took the package and began heating up tortillas. "Where was she hiding?" Lian asked Damian a little while later. He had his cat draped across his shoulders and was giving her a scratch.

"She spent the day sleeping in your quarters," Damian replied. The little grey cat jumped from Damian's shoulders to the ground and began to investigate her new surroundings.

"Hey Nefertiti," Jai greeted the cat when he saw her. She gave him a loud meow and returned to her investigation of the ground under the coach. "Salt's all washed off and swept out of the trailer," he reported.

Iris came out with a bowl of food for the cat and threw open one of the unused luggage compartments on the coach. Iris set the food down and called the cat, which jumped up to enjoy her dinner. The others sat around a picnic table and ate and talked about their trip so far.

"So tomorrow is…?" Chris asked.

"Museum," Lian stated.

"Salt Lake City," Damian began before Lian interrupted him.

"Museum."

"Yes Lian. The Natural History Museum is our first stop," Damian muttered. Lian pumped a fist in victory causing the others to laugh. "Then the Great Salt Lake and a picnic, before returning here for the evening."

"Then it's off to Mt Oppression on Friday, Sí?" Milagro asked.

"Mt Oppression?" Chris asked in bewilderment.

"At least three of the hombres carved onto that mountain, are responsible for either oppressing my people or kicking them out of their ancestral home," Milagro stated with a firm nod. Chris and Jai were both counting off on their fingers and recalling their history before conceding that she had a point.

"That's okay, the unofficial 'Take that Yankee' monument is just down the road," Lian smirked.

"Muchas Gracias Don Crazy Horse!" Milagro cried.

"And they're off," Jai intoned as the two girls got up to do victory dances.

The team called it a night fairly early and tucked in. The girls had taken over the master suite of the coach, as there was a king sized bed and a smaller daybed in the suite. Jai crashed in one of the bunks next to the master suite as Damian and Chris each took a sofa that folded out into beds. Nefertiti wandered around the coach for a bit before settling into the bunk below Jai and curling up to go to sleep. The following morning Damian prepared breakfast, while Jai went to town making a large picnic lunch to take with them. Outside, Chris and the girls were unloading the bikes from the trailer.

"We're just taking the touring bike, right?" Iris asked, as she backed it out of the trailer.

"So Damian said," Chris replied. Milagro and Lian were about to load the Ducatis back into the trailer, when Jai called out and asked that Lian leave the one she was on out. "Hey Irey? Move the land rover so I can hook the trailer back up to the bus," Chris called out. Iris moved the vehicle and Chris easily hauled the trailer to the back of the coach and hooked it up.

"You'll be on guard, correct?" Damian cooed to his cat. She gave him a loud meow in response and purred when he gave her a treat. He set the thermostat in the coach and waved at Nefertiti before leaving and locking the door behind him. "Shall we?" he asked, as he mounted the touring bike. Iris hopped on behind him as Jai revved the Ducati.

"Fossil lizards, here we come!" Milagro called out as they all left the RV Park for the highway. After an hour and a half, they were pulling up to the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum. Damian, Iris, and Jai stripped off their riding gear and tossed it into the land rover before the six of them went to the museum. "Ay Dios mio," Milagro exclaimed as she gaped up at the skeleton of a massive sauropod.

"And to think that was a vegetarian," Iris muttered.

"This one wasn't," Chris stated, indicating the fossil raptor named for the state.

"I can't decide what's more sinister," Jai said as he examined the skeleton. "The switch blade toes or the teeth."

"I dunno," Lian murmured. "Those toe claws look like they could screw up your day."

"I believe this one wins in the sinister teeth department," Damian said, indicating a T-Rex fossil.

"Seeing as scientists figure that it had the most powerful bite of any critter that existed…ever. I'd say so," Lian agreed.

"Those jaws are almost as long as I am tall," Chris declared in awe.

"Yeah, any one of us would easily slide down into that thing's gullet in one gulp," Lian shrugged.

"Chica, you're morbid," Milagro laughed.

"Comes with having been dead before," Lian shrugged again.

"Jaime's been dead a few times and he's a little ray of sunshine compared to you," Milagro chuckled.

"Your brother is a rarity in the 'been there, done that' club," Damian pointed out. Milagro had to concede that Damian had a point after she thought about it for a moment.

They moved onto the mineralogy section of the museum and the occasional 'my precious', that Lian would murmur began to unnerve several of her teammates. "She does that a little too well," Chris said to Jai.

"Uh huh," Jai agreed, as Lian purred the phrase again in front of a large piece of kyanite. Damian joined the other two boys as they slowly moved away from Lian and her obvious delight as she looked at the various precious and semi precious stones.

"I like this one personally," Milagro chimed from in front of a massive malachite boulder.

"You like the colour," Iris teased.

"Duh," Milagro snorted and then laughed.

"Oop no! I found my favourite," Iris said a moment later. Milagro and Lian shared a look and a smirk as Iris admired the large quartz matrix with a gold vein through it.

"Yeah, but which variety of gold is your absolute favourite?" Lian asked.

"That kind or the tall, dark, and handsome one across the room," Milagro added, jerking her thumb towards Damian.

"Har, har smart asses," Iris snorted, as she playfully smacked the other two.

Across the room, Jai and Damian gave Chris a puzzled look as he fought to keep from laughing out loud. Damian glanced over his shoulder towards the girls and Jai followed suit. "What did you hear that they find so amusing?" Damian queried.

Chris shook his head. "You don't wanna know," he managed to get out between clenched teeth.

They browsed the museum for a little while longer before leaving for a recreational area at the Great Salt Lake. Jai smacked his forehead as he recalled that he'd left the sunshade back in the coach. Milagro rolled her eyes and shoved past him to dig around in the back of the land rover. "This is where having a Mexican around, comes in handy," she said as she pulled a tarp from the back. She spied a couple of bungee cords and quickly set up the tarp to provide them with ample shade. After swimming and playing around for several hours, they retreated to the shade and had lunch. It was near four in the afternoon when Jai decided that he'd had enough fun for one day.

"I'm starting to get a little cooked," he said as he poured melt water from the cooler over his head.

"Got a headache?" Lian asked, scrutinising him for signs of heat exhaustion.

"Not yet," Jai assured her.

"We'll take the bikes back," Chris said, indicating himself and Milagro. "You guys ride back in the truck."

"You sure?" Iris asked.

"He's Kryptonian and she's from a desert," Lian muttered.

"Good point," Damian stated, handing Chris and Milagro a couple of helmets from the back of the land rover. Milagro used her power ring to make riding gear for Chris and herself, before getting on the Ducati. By the time they returned to the coach, Jai was feeling a lot better. Lian laughed as she parked the land rover and looked over to the coach. Nefertiti was seated in the back of the coach giving them a reproving look for abandoning her all day.

"What's she all huffy about?" Jai snorted. "She's been in air conditioned comfort all day," he added as he opened the coach door. A wave of cool air hit him as he stepped up into the coach and he called out to the cat. "It was wet where we were, cat." She didn't seem to care and swatted him as she rushed past to greet Damian. "Punk," he muttered.

In the master suite, Milagro was glancing around and shuddered. "I need at least one piece of tacky in here," she stated. "I can't handle all this pristine luxury."

"There's a casino-resort right across the street there," Lian pointed out. "Their gift shop is bound to have something."

"Let me grab my wallet," Iris grinned.

"You guys can have the showers first," Lian told the boys as they made to leave the coach. "We'll be right back, we're gonna go hit the store."

"What d'ya need?" Jai asked.

"Chick stuff," Iris deadpanned. Jai shuddered and held a hand up in surrender. "Works every time," Iris chuckled as they headed for the casino.

"C'mon pink fuzzy dice," Milagro murmured as they spied the gift shop. "Ay Dios mio! We've found the mother-load!"

"How about we get two of them?" Iris suggested. "One for the coach and one for the rover?"

"Brilliant," Milagro stated and got a second set of neon pink fuzzy dice with 'Nevada' embroidered on them.

"I have an idea," Lian said suddenly. "How about at every touristy place we stop at, we get the cheesiest tackiest souvenir we can find, and add it to the collection?"

"Even more brilliant!" Milagro grinned. She paid for the fuzzy dice and the three girls left the gift shop.

"Oh my God," Iris grinned suddenly. "You two head back to the bus. I'm gonna dash into Salt Lake City real quick and pick something up from there."

"Snowglobe," Lian suggested.

"Just one for the bus. The dice are good enough for the land rover," Milagro added.

"You got it!" Iris grinned and tore off down the highway. She found what she wanted and raced back to West Wendover, Nevada and the RV Park. She returned just as Lian and Milagro ambled back to the coach. "Check this bad boy out," Iris exclaimed and held up her prize.

"Utah. The Beehive State," Lian read aloud. The globe held a touristy view of Utah inside it.

"With beehive and glitter snow…perfect," Milagro cackled.

Damian considered his reflection in the mirror and decided that he'd leave the stubble for another day. He felt refreshed and revived after his shower and was looking forward to dinner. Upon leaving the bathroom, he immediately noticed that something was amiss. "What in the name of Hell…?" he muttered, pointing to the fuzzy dice hanging in their new home.

"Those are some mighty pink dice," Chris commented. Milagro and Lian took turns explaining their plan with the souvenirs and Chris laughed. Damian immediately became suspicious and scanned the interior of the coach. His eyes quickly spotted the snowglobe on the kitchen counter and he cringed.

"Relax, everything we find is just temporary and won't damage anything," Iris informed him as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Chick stuff, huh?" Jai dryly commented, as he stepped from the master suite towelling his hair dry.

"They're pink," Iris shrugged. "Dibs on the shower!" she called out suddenly and raced to the back of the coach.

"Oh no you don't Zippy!" Lian hollered as she and Milagro gave chase.

"This is going to be a long trip," Damian sighed. Jai pointed out that they could have found fringe to hang in the front window. Damian shuddered.

TBC…


	2. South Dakota

Road Trip – Wyoming and South Dakota.

_A/N: This whole story idea is based on several road trips I have taken over the years. Wyoming is breath taking in its natural beauty and I have seen some sights in my day. Also, as I am from a foreign country, I couldn't resist the chance to just drive and go see things that people take for granted here._

"Day Three and we're off to the 'Take that Yankee' monument and Mt Oppression in South Dakota," Jai said from the passenger seat of the land rover.

"You have a running commentary going or something?" Chris asked from behind the wheel.

"I have a trip log I'm writing," Jai replied. "Besides, I love the names Lian and Mila came up with for where we're going today," he added with a chuckle.

"Nerd," Lian snorted across the video comm they had set up. The two boys could hear Milagro laughing besides her. Lian was driving the coach with Milagro riding shotgun.

"You know?" Chris commented as they left Salt Lake City behind them. "For a major city, during the morning rush hour…that was nothing."

"Yeah and now it's just thirty miles straight uphill until we hit Park City," Lian replied.

"You'll be fine," Milagro assured her.

Further inside the coach, Damian was reclined on a sofa playing with Nefertiti. Iris was seated across from him working on her manicure. Gravity became noticeable as Lian drove up a particularly steep incline and Iris couldn't help but comment on it. "Damn that stretch never seems so steep when I'm running it."

"That was impressive," Milagro stated.

"That was white knuckle inducing," Lian managed to get out between clenched teeth.

"Want to switch wheels?" Chris offered.

"I'm not stopping until we're on relatively flat ground," Lian bit out.

"You're doing fine," Milagro reassured her.

"From now on, I'm driving this thing on flat ground," Lian shot back. "Only!"

"Park City is just up ahead, we can swap out there if you like?" Chris offered. Lian agreed to the suggestion before tuning everything out and concentrating on the road.

"Oh look!" Milagro grinned as they rounded a sharp bend and Park City came into view. She was pointing towards the large Olympic Rings that greeted drivers to the former Winter Olympic host city.

"There's a parking lot over there so people can take pictures," Jai suggested. Chris turned on the indicator lights as he slowed to take the exit. He could see in the rear view mirror that Lian was doing the same. Lian parked the coach in a spot reserved for large recreational vehicles as Chris parked across from her.

"Whew," Lian let out, as she stepped from the coach flexing her fingers.

"You did fine," Chris told her as he placed an arm across her shoulders and ruffled her hair.

"I need coffee," Lian stated. "Strong, black, and possibly illegal."

"How's coffee illegal?" Milagro puzzled.

"Mormons aren't allowed to consume caffeine," Lian replied. Milagro blinked a few times before muttering something under her breath in Spanish.

"See? We're not abandoning you this time," Iris cooed as she followed Damian out of the coach. Damian had a backpack slung over his shoulder and Nefertiti was poking her head out of the top. They took pictures and wandered around for a while until Lian spotted a local coffee shop.

"Okay, Damian wants a cup of black death, Irey wants sugar flavoured coffee, and Mila is getting the iced version of Irey's….got it," Lian said as she, Chris, and Jai went inside to get their orders.

"She's calmed down somewhat," Damian smirked.

"Yeah…less grumpy," Iris snorted. Milagro laughed.

Drinks in hand they returned to their vehicles and Lian headed for the land rover after surreptitiously handing Iris a small bag. Iris felt the contents with her hand and smirked. Lian had found another souvenir for their collection. "I'll drive for a while," Jai offered and Lian took him on it.

"All aboard the crazy bus," Chris chuckled as he held the door. Iris elbowed Milagro and slyly showed her the bag Lian had just handed her. Milagro smirked.

"You still have your nail stuff out Irey?" Milagro asked.

"I just put it away," Iris replied.

Damian shook his head and flopped into the shotgun seat next to Chris. Nefertiti jumped onto the dash and got comfortable as she gazed out of the windscreen. Chris meanwhile was muttering about how petite Lian was, as he readjusted the driver's seat to accommodate his much larger frame. In the master suite, Iris ripped the souvenir from the little plastic bag and gave a diabolical chuckle. "Press here," she read aloud and pressed the small button on the side of the gaudy refrigerator magnet. It began to flash and play a tinny version of the Olympic theme.

"Perfecto," Milagro laughed. The two returned to the living area of the coach and as Milagro made herself comfortable on a sofa, Iris placed their latest piece of tacky on the refrigerator door.

They saw the first billboard advertising a resort destination just outside of the Wyoming border. Lian flipped open Jai's laptop and looked up the web address advertised on the sign. "Resort, slash truck stop, slash wholesome family vacation spot, out in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere," Lian read aloud. "Looks like a god damn cult commune," she added derisively.

"It looks positively terrifying," Damian muttered as he looked the website up in the coach.

"So sixty miles ahead is full of loco cult people…got it," Milagro stated as she read over Damian's shoulder.

"Well we're fully gassed up, so we can just drive right on by the place," Chris chuckled. Fate had other ideas.

As they were nearing the turn off for the remote resort in the Wyoming wilderness, Jai could see flashing lights up ahead. "Why do they have the highway closed going eastbound?" Lian pulled up the local website dedicated to road conditions and gave Jai his answer.

"Big rig accident up ahead. Estimated time for them to clean it up and reopen the highway is another hour."

"Great," Jai groaned. "So we are going to the crazy cult place."

"Can you hear that Mila?" Chris asked as he slowed to take the exit. Milagro strained to listen for a moment before she heard what Chris had.

"One of the belts is slightly off," she stated. "No problemo though. These engines need a little tweaking in the first few thousand miles," she added as she checked the odometer and saw that there were less than five thousand miles of total travel distance indicated.

They found adjacent parking for the coach and land rover at the edge of the massive lot. Milagro went to the tool box to get what she needed for the belt fix as Jai and Lian left the land rover for the more spacious coach. A few minutes later, Milagro was in front of the coach, propping the hood up when Lian and Iris suddenly walked by, heading towards the tourist centre of the resort.

"Where are you two going?" she asked.

"Baño," Lian replied.

"Watch out for the cultists," Milagro snorted before turning her attention to the engine.

Just inside the sliding doors, a middle aged greeter welcomed the two girls. "If you girls need anything, feel free to ask," the woman smiled sweetly.

"Thanks," Iris replied, as they walked past. Both girls eyed the door greeter and her uniform that looked a lot like medical scrubs.

"No…not creepy at all," Lian muttered. "That way," she said, pointing to a large sign indicating the restrooms.

There were two elderly women in the rather plush restroom as Lian and Iris entered. The elder of the two had a dark scowl on her aged face as she eyed the teenagers up. Iris went into one of the stalls while Lian went to the sinks and splashed cool water on her face. She dried off and began twisting her long hair up into a bun. Iris finished and came out to wash her hands, when the elder of the two women piped up.

"I don't like this place," she griped. "It's full of weirdoes."

"Now Mom," the younger of the two scolded.

Iris barked out a laugh as Lian chuckled. "We totally agree with you Nana."

Outside in front of the coach, Milagro was inspecting the belts and had narrowed down the culprit that was slightly off. An attendant from the gas station came over and asked if she needed a hand. "Gracias no, Señor," she replied. "Okay, turn it on," she called out. Damian turned the engine on and Milagro turned her ear towards the belts. "Rev it," she instructed. Damian did so and Milagro smirked. "Gotcha." She indicated with her hand for Damian to cut the engine. Crouching down slightly, she fit the socket wrench to the appropriate bolt and began tightening it. She stepped back when she had the belt realigned properly and had Damian turn the engine on again. Milagro turned her ear to the engine again and had Damian rev the engine. "Got it!" she called out and flashed a thumbs up to Damian.

Lian and Iris held the door for the elderly mother and daughter as they were leaving the tourist centre. The daughter thanked the two while the mother just gave them an approving grunt. "She kinda reminds me of Grandma Joan," Iris mused as they headed back to the others.

"Mrs Garrick? How?" Lian gaped.

"Really stubborn," Iris smirked. "Oh…my…God!" she said suddenly. "Even the cat doesn't like this place," she howled. Lian looked up and spied Nefertiti perched on the dash scowling. The tip of her tail was flicking against the hardwood dash.

"Hold that pose Pretty Girl," Lian laughed as she took a few pictures of the irritated cat. Nefertiti glanced down at the two of them and meowed before returning her reproachful gaze to the tourist centre.

"Verdict?" Damian asked as the two girls entered the coach.

"Kooksville!" Lian proclaimed. Iris told them about the two elderly women they'd encountered and the others laughed.

"Hey?" Jai piped up suddenly. "According to the road site, the highway is going to be open in another ten to fifteen minutes."

"Let's get rolling now," Chris suggested.

Lian and Jai dashed off for the land rover. Iris and Milagro both jumped into the roomy passenger seat as Damian stood behind the driver's seat. Chris fired up the coach and waited for Lian to pull ahead in the land rover. Nefertiti hunkered down on her perch on the dash and meowed loudly. A highway patrolman was just opening the gate closing off the highway as the two vehicles approached the on ramp. He informed them to take it slow until they passed the accident site and waved them through. They went about a mile before coming across the accident and picked up speed as they drove past.

"The driver's shaken, but okay," Chris pronounced as he let his eyes readjust to normal vision.

The scenery began to change from high plateau to ragged red canyon. Lian would glance occasionally up at the rock face as they drove past and spotted something that caught her eye. "No way," she murmured.

"Wha?" Jai asked.

"See that line of grey through the rocks up there?" she asked. Jai took a moment until he spotted what Lian was referring to.

"Yeah, so?"

"That's the friggin' KT boundary!"

"The what?" Jai huffed, raising a puzzled eyebrow.

"The Cretaceous – Tertiary boundary," Lian specified. "The line in the dirt that says; the dinosaurs died here!"

"Okay…and you have the gall to call me a nerd?" Jai snorted.

In the coach, Chris tuned out the argument that ensued in the land rover ahead of him as he focused on the spot Lian had pointed out. "Hnn. It is the KT boundary," he muttered.

"And you know this because?" Iris asked.

"I saw it last year when I went with Mom to Haiti. It's really thick there," he explained. "I know what it looks like microscopically and that stuff up there matches." Damian interrupted Chris from explaining further with a sudden sneeze.

"Bless you…oh someone's having desert issues," Milagro said when she got a good look at Damian.

"It came on suddenly," Damian murmured before sneezing again. His eyes were bloodshot and watering heavily. "Do we have anything for allergies?" Iris zipped back to where the first aid kit was kept and checked.

"Nope sorry," she stated a moment later. Damian made a small noise of disgust.

"There's a town just up ahead, let's pull off there," Lian stated. They pulled off the highway and into the lot of a large rest area. Damian and Milagro went inside in search of relief for Damian's sudden allergy attack as the others got out to stretch their legs. Lian sidled up to Chris and smiled sweetly up at him. "Would you be so kind and zip up there to get me some KT boundary clay…please?" she asked, handing him a small plastic bag.

"You want sixty five million year old dirt?" Chris teased.

"No. I want sixty five million year old apocalyptic fallout," she corrected.

"You're twisted," he laughed. Chris wandered to a spot behind the coach and then took off to get Lian her sample. He returned a moment later and handed the now full plastic bag back to her. "Here's your apocalyptic fallout Madam. A fine vintage if I do say so myself," he said as he bowed before her.

"You're a sweetheart," she grinned and kissed the top of his bowed head.

"And you're psychotic," Jai snorted.

"Meh. I'm my mother's daughter," Lian shrugged. Jai couldn't help but laugh at that.

Iris was shaking her head and laughing softly when she glanced towards the store and saw Damian and Milagro. "Jesus Mila…you bought out their entire stock of allergy stuff?"

"Allergy stuff," Milagro stated, holding up the smaller of the two bags. "And junk food." She flinched when Iris zipped over to snag the bag with the junk food in it.

"That's still an impressive haul of allergy stuff though," Iris commented as she dug through the junk food bag.

"We're heading into my potential downfall in a few days…farm country."

"Oh yeah," Iris nodded.

"Shall we…I'm not even going to ask, Lian," Damian stated when he saw the plastic bag she was lovingly cradling to her chest.

"Sixty five million year old apocalyptic fallout," Jai snorted as they turned to get back into the vehicles. Damian mouthed the words to himself as he shook his head in complete bewilderment.

The rest of the drive to South Dakota was uneventful. It was early evening when they drove past the Crazy Horse monument on their way to their campground. Lian strained to see if she could spot the massive sculpture in progress from the highway, but she couldn't. They could see glimpses of Mt Rushmore though as they drove closer to it. Damian checked them in at the campground and came back with a satisfied smirk on his face. Taking the wheel of the land rover, he had Chris follow him to their assigned spot for the next two nights. It was remote and far enough away from the main campgrounds that it seemed as though they were the only people there.

Built into the coach was an outdoor kitchen. Jai slid it out from the space where it was stored and fired up the grill. Milagro and Iris had spent part of the drive up, preparing dinner for that evening. Chris rubbed his hands together in delight as the first of the steaks hit the grill; the smell had been maddening when Milagro had seasoned them a few hours earlier. Jai tended the steaks with expert care before deciding that the smallest one on the grill was ready. He pulled it off and let it sit for a few minutes before cutting it up into bite sized pieces. Everyone took a piece and to Milagro's delight, the appreciative compliments came gushing forth.

"To hell with kryptonite…this could take me down," Chris groaned. Jai rattled off the word delicious in several languages, while Lian moaned and sagged against the coach in pleasure.

"I actually cringe at the misuse of the word awesome, but that is awesome!" Iris stated.

"I am about to utter a blasphemy…so profound in my family, that it could shake the very heart of the universe," Damian muttered. "But that is better than any steak Alfred has ever placed before me."

"Damn," Lian murmured, as she, Chris, Iris, and Jai all gaped at him.

Milagro gave him a wry smile as she thanked him for the compliment. "But aren't you exaggerating a bit there, Ese?" she teased. She'd recently met the Wayne's faithful butler and highly doubted that she could prepare anything, let alone a humble steak, better than he could.

"As much as it burns my soul to admit this, I am not exaggerating. That is superb," Damian stated.

Milagro's jaw dropped. "Okay damn! Muchas gracias!"

Iris excused herself suddenly and took out her mobile. "Hey Grandma Joan? It's Irey," she said when Joan Garrick answered. "Have you and Aunt Iris gone shopping for the cookout on Sunday yet? You haven't…you're going tomorrow? Cross the steaks off the list. We're bringing them!" Iris went on to explain the meal the teenagers were about to indulge in as she insisted that they take care of the steaks. "Damian swears, as much as it burns his soul to admit, that they're better than anything Alfred's ever come up with…uh-huh, exactly! We've got the steaks covered. Alright, see you Sunday! Love you, bye," Iris said as she finished her call. "Guess what you're doing Sunday morning," she directed at Milagro.

"Attempting to impress your family," Milagro laughed.

"Bingo!"

"Chow's on!" Jai declared. He jumped back suddenly as he was swarmed by the others in the mad dash to grab food.

Dinner finished, they lounged around for a while letting their meal digest, when the first flickering lights began to appear around them. "Oh wow!" Milagro exclaimed.

"You've never seen fireflies before?" Chris asked incredulously as Milagro attempted to coax one to land on her finger.

"They don't live in the desert," she replied in awe.

"Or in Cali," Lian added, as she gazed at the floating lights.

Unlike Milagro, Lian had seen the summer insects a few times before. The sight of them though still dazzled her. Milagro stood up and then lifted off the ground to float up into the heart of the lazy swarm. The faint green aura her ring was casting around her, attracted the insects and she floated among them in childish delight. Damian watched her for a while before something beyond his teammate caught his eye. He glanced around and spotted a clearing in the trees and headed for it. Looking up, it was his turn to stare slack jawed in sheer awe.

"And to think, that's just our home galaxy," Chris said a few minutes later. Damian glanced over his shoulder towards his teammate before returning his gaze to the impressive night sky. A massive swath of starlight dominated the sky with countless stars twinkling around the main band.

"As many times as I've seen that on the reservation, it never gets old," Lian commented as she and the others joined Damian and Chris.

"Hop on," Milagro said, creating a floating platform with her ring. The four non-flyers all got on the platform and Milagro took them up to just above the tree tops. They star gazed for nearly an hour before Iris suddenly yawned loudly. She gave everyone a meek apology as they chuckled at her.

"We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," Damian murmured as Milagro brought them back down to the ground. He reached for Milagro's shoulder to halt her for a moment. "Thank you," he offered.

"Denada," she grinned at him. "Wait until we get to El Paso. That's even more impressive out in the desert," she added.

The following morning, Jai rolled out of his bunk and crashed to the floor. "Ow," he muttered as he lay there for a moment.

"You climb out of the bunk…not fall out of it," Lian stated as she stepped over Jai's prone body.

"Bite me," he muttered as he flashed his middle finger in her general direction. With a heaving grunt, Jai got up off the floor and wandered over to the table. Lian was prepared for it and easily deflected the swat he aimed for her head.

"Drink," Iris instructed as she held a cup of coffee in front of her brother. Jai snarled at her but took the mug and ambled towards the front of the coach. Iris rolled her eyes as she went back to making breakfast while Lian fought to contain a fit of giggles.

"Where is everybody?" he asked.

"Damian and Mila went for a jog and Chris is wandering around having a nosy of the place," his sister answered. Jai shrugged before taking a long swig of his coffee and stepping outside. He was hit suddenly with a bucketful of ice cold water and let rip with a stream of expletives that would have given the most profane abuser of the English language pause.

"Wow," Chris laughed. "You managed to get bestiality in that litany…twice! I am impressed."

"You are dog chow, pal…dog chow!" Jai vowed as he pushed his wet hair out of his eyes.

"Looking forward to it, buddy," Chris laughed. He lifted off and flew away as Jai glared daggers at him. Chris decided to give Jai about twenty minutes before heading back to join the others.

"Damn yo," Milagro called out as she and Damian rounded a corner. "That is was impressive!"

"Christopher?" Damian asked as he took in Jai's soaked appearance.

"Is a dead man," Jai scowled. "Kryptonian or not." Jai glanced at his coffee cup and scowled deeper. Tipping the now watered down contents out he turned and stormed into the coach. Damian shook his head in amusement before following Jai. Milagro took a little longer as she was doubled over and howling in laughter.

Chris returned to the others just as Iris was serving breakfast. Jai flipped him off, but that was as hostile as it got. Chris snorted a laugh and ruffled Jai's damp hair. "You sounded like you needed the wake up call," he shrugged as he took a seat across from Jai.

"I hate you," Jai growled into his coffee.

"At the manor, violence and death threats are usually prohibited at the dinner table," Damian piped up. "This omelette is delicious Iris, thank you," he added.

"You're welcome," she smiled, polishing off the first of two omelettes.

"Do you guys even follow the no violence and death threat rule?" Lian asked. "I mean between Cass, Jason, and you, meals must be an event at Wayne Manor."

"Sadly, much to dear Alfred's chagrin, we do not abide by the rule on most occasions," Damian chuckled. "Especially if it is a meal that one of the diners particularly enjoys."

"An example would be?" Jai asked out of curiosity.

"Timothy and lamb can be quite eventful," Damian smirked.

"I'll bite," Jai grinned.

"Timothy is of Welsh descent," Damian pointed out. Lian and Chris smothered their laughter behind their hands. Jai lunged forward a bit in an effort to keep from spraying everyone with the gulp of coffee he'd just taken, as Iris howled in laughter. Milagro simply looked a little confused. "Richard and Jason informed me the first time we all ate lamb together, that the Welsh have a rather…intimate relationship with sheep," Damian informed her.

"How bad are the sheep shagging jokes?" Lian asked before dissolving into laughter.

"Ay Dios mio," Milagro groaned as she caught on.

"Sadly, Father and Alfred do manage to keep anyone from being too crude," Damian sighed. "Eventful mealtime with my family aside, in what order are we going to see the monuments?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Rushmore gets insanely crowded towards the evening according to the interwebs, so there and then Crazy Horse?" Jai suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Iris shrugged. She reached across the table and swapped out her empty plate for Lian's abandoned one. Lian managed to snag a piece of toast from her unfinished breakfast before Iris pulled the plate out of reach. "How about we do Rushmore first, then back here for lunch before hitting Crazy Horse?" The team agreed with the plan, figuring that it would be the most simple way to enjoy the day.

Iris cleaned up the breakfast dishes at speed as the others got ready for the day. "Sorry Nefer-kitty," she said, patting the cat. "No pets allowed…so we can't smuggle you in with us." Nefertiti let her annoyance show with a loud squawk of a meow as she skulked off to the girl's quarters. Damian took pity on his pet and placed a small handful of treats into her bowl before they all left for Mt Rushmore.

Prior to hitting the open road, Damian had acquired a pair of passes that allowed free access to all national parks in the country. One each for the coach and land rover. The ranger waved them through to the main parking area without directing them to stop and pay admission first. They all piled out of the land rover and began walking towards the granite faces carved into the mountainside.

Chris had a smirk on his face as he suddenly cleared his throat. "Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Illinois," he stated in a childish version of his voice. Jai continued the scene in a childlike voice as Lian, Iris, and Milagro were laughing and leaning on each other for support. Jai managed the entire monologue with a straight face, much to the amusement of the others.

"Huh?" Damian gaped at his friends in stunned confusion.

"You've never seen '_I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'_?" Milagro asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Huh?" Damian repeated.

"We've got webflix, right?" Lian asked Jai.

"We're camping in a mobile wi-fi hotspot," he snorted. "We've got webflix."

"Movie night!" Iris and Chris chimed together.

"We will broaden your horizons tonight, Ese," Milagro stated, patting Damian on the shoulder.

"Huh?" Damian uttered again.

"Jesus quick! Someone write down the date…we've stunned him to the point of stupidity," Iris teased.

"I'd argue," Damian stammered. "But unfortunately you are correct. What the hell are you going to make me watch tonight?" he demanded.

"A really funny cult classic of a movie," Chris replied. "Now c'mon, we haven't got all day," he added, taking Damian by the elbow and leading him onwards.

"Thank you Jesus," Jai suddenly intoned in a deep voice. Damian was left confused again as the others started laughing once more.

"Oh cool, check it out," Milagro said, pointing to a scale model of the mountain. It was right next to the gift shop and Lian and Iris caught on immediately. Chris glanced over his shoulder when he heard Milagro first speak up and shook his head. Positioning himself next to Damian, so that his slightly larger frame blocked the view, he waved to the three to indicate that the coast was clear. Lian and Milagro stayed near the front of the gift shop as Iris went in to find their souvenir.

"I always thought it was bigger than that," Damian stated, staring up at the monument.

"Why? Because in photos of it, it looks bigger?" Chris asked. Damian merely nodded.

Lian spotted Iris leaving the gift shop and reached for Milagro's shoulder. Milagro turned so that Lian could quickly unzip the backpack slung over her shoulder. Iris walked past and quickly dropped the gift bag into Milagro's backpack. Lian zipped it back up and the three girls shared a smirk as they rejoined the boys. The team toured the site and listened to a few presentations being given before returning to the land rover and heading back to camp for lunch. Milagro left her backpack in the land rover. They'd wait to plant the newest souvenir when Damian's guard was down.

After lunch, they all piled into the land rover again and headed for the Crazy Horse monument. Lian stayed fairly quiet as the others chatted on the short trip and Chris noticed it. He figured out why when they got to the monument. He heard a soft sniffle coming from Lian as she looked out towards the unfinished carving with tears in her eyes. Milagro noticed too and put an arm around Lian's shoulders. "Chica?"

"I've always wanted to see this," Lian commented softly. "Even though Crazy Horse was Lakota…the Navajo who raised Dad always held him in high regard."

"So this is like a pilgrimage for you then?" Chris asked. Lian nodded.

"Kind of," she replied. "Dad and I donate annually to the memorial, but we've never had a chance to take advantage of it. I mean we're not Navajo by blood, but in our hearts…"

"According to Jaime's scarab, about eighty percent of my DNA is Aztec and Mayan, so I can relate," Milagro said, giving Lian's shoulders a squeeze.

"The scarab knows where all your DNA comes from?" Jai puzzled aloud.

Milagro laughed and told the others about the time Jaime had seen a program about a project that was tracking humanity's migration across the planet. "The scarab had Jaime go online to their website and studied the information, before analyzing Jaime's DNA and figuring out where it all came from," Milagro chuckled. "We're mostly Aztec and Mayan, but the Spanish on Mom's side had some fun stuff thrown in too."

"Introductions from the Moorish occupation of Spain?" Damian guessed.

Milagro pointed towards him. "Got it in one," she said. "Mom is also the primary source of Neanderthal DNA in Jaime and me. Something our Dad loves pointing out to get her going," she laughed.

Damian narrowed his eyes and smirked. "That, I can relate to. I'm familiar with the program you speak of, and had a sample analyzed. Information I delighted in informing Mother of last year."

"When she had you trapped for nearly a week in order to 're-educate' you?" Iris asked.

"Yes. For someone who professes advancements in human evolution, she found the information…upsetting," he replied. "The bulk of my Neanderthal DNA is from the Arabic half of my heritage, whereas my European heritage is more 'human'," Damian waved his fingers in quotation marks as spoke.

"Ouch," Chris and Iris laughed.

"Betcha that burned Talia," Jai cackled.

"It did," Damian smirked. Pulling the collar of his shirt down a little, he pointed out a scar over his clavicle. "I smile when I see this in my reflection." Iris playfully smacked him.

A young Lakota woman wandered up to greet them and welcome them to the monument. She introduced herself as Shelly and offered to guide them around the site if they were interested. "We'd love that, thank you," Lian replied gratefully. Lian introduced the team to Shelly.

"Nice meeting all of you," Shelly smiled. "There's a board over here that I like to show people to first," she added. "This is the finished monument, as imagined by Korczak Ziolkowski and Chief Henry Standing Bear back in 1948." On the board was a painting illustrating a finished monument and surrounding area that included camping and educational facilities.

"I love that the family is determined to do this with only donations from the public," Lian stated.

"No federales?" Milagro asked.

Shelly laughed. "Nope. No federales. They wanted too much control and Korczak wouldn't have any of it. So he turned down their offers of assistance."

"Right on, Ese!" Milagro cheered, pointing to the sky.

"Which reminds me, where would I make a donation?" Damian asked.

"The Cultural Centre. It's over this way," Shelly replied.

"That's going to trump this one from Dad and me big time, isn't it?" Lian smirked, holding up an envelope she had retrieved from her backpack.

"Most likely," Damian replied. Lian shot him a wry look as Shelly led them to a reception area where they could make donations. "Father was inspired by your father's story and has contributed annually to the memorial for years."

"Your family contributes annually?" Shelly asked.

"Yes, the Wayne Foundation." Shelly gaped at Damian.

"You're Damian Wayne? Bruce Wayne's youngest son?" Damian acknowledged the query with a nod. "Whoa," Shelly exclaimed.

The receptionist handed Damian a form to fill out when he said that he wanted to make a personal donation. Iris filled one out on behalf of her and Jai, while Chris and Milagro each filled one out as well. "Is the story true that your father was inspired by a young orphan brave of the Navajo?" the woman asked Damian.

"You know the story better than any of us," Damian playfully suggested to Lian. Lian backhanded him on the arm.

"My Dad was born on a reservation in Arizona," Lian started. "He was orphaned at the age of three and the tribe took him in and raised him as a Navajo." Lian continued telling Shelly and the receptionist Roy Harper's story and fudged a little on how Bruce Wayne came to hear of it. "When I told Dad we were heading here on this trip, he asked that I personally deliver our annual donation," she concluded and handed the envelope over.

"How do you always find the regular donors?" the receptionist teased Shelly.

"I have no idea, I swear Liz," Shelly defended, holding up her hands after she saw the names on the cheque Lian handed over. Lian gave the pair a puzzled look.

"Shelly always seems to find regular donators and offer to show them around," Liz offered. "I have a photographic memory and I recognise the names Roy and Lian Harper. At least now I know why we didn't get your cheque earlier this year," she added.

"Dad'll be stoked," Lian grinned.

"Seriously?" Liz asked Damian when he handed the form back to her with his credit card.

"There are six of us here," he replied. Liz smiled gratefully as she processed the returned forms and donations.

"They're all yours Shelly," she stated once she handed them their receipts.

Shelly enthusiastically led them to the various museums and educational sites scattered throughout the memorial. Lian beamed with pride when she spied an exhibit that had been donated by the band of Navajo, Roy had been raised by. Shelly laughed as she recalled the donation ceremony several years earlier. "The chief's daughter, Smiling Water, has a wicked sense of humour," she recalled.

"Aunt Carrie is definitely a handful," Lian agreed. "Some of my best jokes are from her."

"Is this the one you said we're going to get a kick out of, when we hit the reservation?" Iris asked.

"Yup."

Shelly laughed. "Tell her we said 'hi' from South Dakota." Lian promised to pass on the message. The tour continued until Shelly led them to an awaiting bus that took visitors up the mountain to get a close look at the face of the monument. The stunning detail of the face left the six teenagers in awe as they looked up at it. Lian had been taking pictures all day and asked Shelly to take one of the team in front of the monument. Chris suggested that they ask someone to take another group shot with Shelly included. Shelly called over to another Lakota guide and asked if he would do the honours. He took several pictures before handing Lian her camera back.

After several more hours of touring the site, they parted ways with Shelly. "Thank you so much," Lian gushed, hugging Shelly. Lian removed an arrowhead necklace she was wearing and presented it to Shelly. Shelly gratefully accepted it and presented Lian with horn bead leather cuff she had been wearing.

"Indeed, you were most informative and a delight to have as our guide," Damian added, taking her hand and placing a chaste kiss on the back of it.

"You guys are welcome back anytime," Shelly offered, as she exchanged hugs with Chris and Milagro.

"Gracias," Milagro grinned.

"It was really great meeting you," Chris added.

Jai and Iris bowed before her and thanked her in Korean. "We'll definitely look you up when we come back," Jai said as he took his turn hugging Shelly.

"Do you have an email address we can write to you at?" Iris asked.

"I'd like that," Shelly grinned. Jai took down her email address and told her what to look for from the team. "Have a safe journey," Shelly called out as she waved to the team one last time.

Jai fired off an email to Shelly as soon as they returned to camp. He included the group photos in the message and extended the team's thanks once again for showing them around. Shelly would reply to it the following day. They were the first of a lifetime of correspondence between the Titans and Shelly.

TBC...

_A/N: (part 2) Yes… I did recite the Abraham Lincoln school report monologue from I'm Gonna Git You Sucka' at Mt Rushmore. I managed to do it in one take, straight through, and with a straight face…before I doubled over and howled in laughter for about 5 minutes with me mates. For the record! One of my very American friends in that group started it all, by trying to recite the thing himself. He could only remember the first line though…unlike moi, who practically has that whole movie memorised._


	3. Midwest Family Reunions

Road Trip – Midwest Family Reunions.

_A/N: The kids stop at a couple of residences in the Midwest to relax and unwind from their adventures so far. And I feel I should explain Lian's rock obsession in this story…it's my rock obsession in reality. I go ga-ga when I see interesting geology and/or lumps of rock._

The Titans had left their camp in South Dakota in the predawn hours of the morning. Damian drove the coach and Iris the land rover as the others slept. Lian was the next one up and wandered out to the kitchen area for a cup of coffee. She eased into the passenger seat and handed Damian a mug as well.

"Thank you," he replied.

"We left early enough?" Lian asked around a yawn.

"It's a long drive to the Garrick home in Central City," Damian informed her.

"We keep the stops to a minimum and we should get there around three in the afternoon," Iris added over the video comm.

"Don't we have steaks to pick up?" Lian asked.

"We'll do so in Sioux Falls," Damian stated.

After stopping to refuel and pick up the steaks they had promised in Sioux Falls, Jai took over driving the land rover and Milagro took the wheel of the coach. Damian and Iris retreated to the master suite to take a nap. Nefertiti joined them. Lian snoozed for most of the drive down to Central City in one of the bunks. Chris woke her, Damian, and Iris up about half an hour from the Garrick home so they could freshen up.

"There's a paved drive that goes along the side of the house Mila," Jai was telling her as they turned down the street the Garrick's lived on. "Grandpa Jay said to park the coach there."

"Okay I see it," Milagro said. "Oh good, it's wide too," she added as she pulled up over the curb. Jai drove a little further down the street before doing a three point turn and pulling up in front of the Garrick home.

"Man, I'm glad she can drive that thing like a dream," Jai stated when he saw the job Milagro had done of parking the coach.

"I'm impressed," Jay Garrick stated from behind Jai.

"Hey Grandpa Jay!" Jai greeted, turning to hug the elder speedster.

"Hello Son," he returned the greeting. "We weren't expecting you until later."

"You're here already?" Joan Garrick smiled as she stepped out the backdoor.

"Damian and I were up early, so we decided to hit the road," Iris shrugged before hugging the elderly woman.

"Six more than able bodies at your service, Ma'am," Lian said. "Where do you need us?"

"I could definitely use some of you in the kitchen," Joan replied, hugging Lian in welcome. Jai, Iris, and Lian went inside with Joan and got to work.

"Thank you for your gracious hospitality," Damian stated to Jay.

"Glad to have you over, Son," Jay replied, shaking Damian's proffered hand.

"My cat is travelling with us, is it permissible for her to wander outside for a while?" Damian asked.

"Oh of course, Son, by all means," Jay smiled. "She's beautiful," he added when he spied Nefertiti perched in the doorway of the coach.

"Thank you," Damian smiled softly before calling the cat to him. She jumped to the ground and trotted over to her master. "She's got all the characteristics of a Russian Blue," Damian added when Jay asked what breed she was. "I got her as a kitten from the shelter."

"Who could abandon such a lovely lady?" Jay asked as he petted the cat.

"Whoever did surrender her to the shelter, I must admit that I'm grateful," Damian replied. "Nefertiti is a wonderful companion."

"Steaks are seasoned and ready to go," Milagro called out triumphantly. "Where'd everybody go?"

"They're inside helping Joan," Jay replied.

"Okay, gracias," she grinned and headed inside.

"Pop that and bingo," Chris murmured aloud as he slid the outdoor kitchen out from the underbelly of the coach. "Where's your grill Mr Garrick, I can set it up over here," Chris asked.

"On the side of the house," Jay replied indicating the opposite side of the home. "Need a hand?"

"No thanks," Chris winked, drawing an 's' on his chest with his finger.

"Sorry Son, I am getting up there in years," Jay chuckled.

"Not a problem Sir," Chris replied as he flew by with the large grill. Jay suggested where to set it up and added that he usually had a small fold out table that he set up beside the grill to put all the finished food on. Damian asked where the table was and went to fetch it.

"Looks good boys," Jay commented. "Now we just need to set up the picnic tables…"

"You direct and we do the heavy lifting?" Damian suggested. Chris snorted a laugh and Damian shot him a wry look out of the corner of his eyes.

"I like that plan even better," Jay stated. He went over to a large shed and unlocked it. Chris grabbed one of the tables and flew it over to where Jay indicated. Damian went into the shed and got the next table ready for Chris. The two worked in tandem and in no time the picnic tables and chairs were set up.

"We're all done here, Dears. Thank you for your help," Joan said inside the kitchen. "We'll take this out when they start cooking," she added.

"Want to check out the bus Mrs Garrick?" Lian suggested.

"Sure. And you kids can just call me Joan," she waved dismissively as they headed outside. "What a beautiful little cat," Joan exclaimed when she spied Nefertiti pouncing around in the back yard.

"That's Damian's cat, Nefertiti," Iris explained. "You got a nice big yard to play in, huh Nefer-kitty?" The cat ignored them as she concentrated on a moth fluttering around near the grass. She pounced and missed the moth as it flew away. Looking up, Nefertiti glanced towards the backdoor and trotted over to inspect Joan. Joan bent down to give her a scratch behind the ear and Nefertiti purred loudly.

"She's okay travelling with you?" Joan asked.

"She's been having a ball," Jai chuckled. "Come on, we'll show you," he added leading Joan towards the coach.

"Now that's a camper," Max Mercury stated as he stepped out the back door. "I just let myself in," he added walking over to shake hands with Jay.

"You want help with the cooler?" Jay suggested, indicating Chris with his thumb.

"In back of the pick-up out front," Max instructed, before returning his attention to the coach. Chris went to get the cooler and placed it where Jay had indicated earlier.

"Would you like to see inside Mr Crandall?" Damian asked.

"If you don't mind," Max replied. He let out a low whistle once inside the coach.

"I can see why folks our age retire to the open roads in one of these," Jay commented.

"Don't even think about it Jay Garrick," Joan called out from the kitchen area. "You'd get bored in five minutes." Lian and Milagro clapped hands over their mouths to contain their laughter.

"Ten minutes maybe…at least in a set up like this," Jay teased his wife. Joan shot him a withering look.

"Come on, we'll show you where we're sleeping," Iris chuckled as she led Joan to the master suite.

"On the other hand," Joan commented and glanced back out towards her husband.

"We left Wednesday, and I have yet to be bored," Iris stated. Joan gave her a disbelieving look. "No joke, we've been having a blast!"

Barry and Iris Allen came out through the back as everyone was leaving the coach. Bart Allen and Jenni Ognats stepped out the backdoor behind their grandparents a few moments later, carrying duffels with them. "You got everything set up already?" Barry asked as he looked around.

"Helps to have a Super present," Jay beamed, patting Chris on the shoulder.

"Where are we dumping our bags?" Bart asked Iris as he hugged his cousin. Iris led him and Jenni into the coach and the master suite. It had been decided during the planning of the trip that the two cousins would join the teenagers in Central City and hitch a ride with them to the Kent farm. Bart and Jenni would get home under their own power when the teenagers set off on their trip again.

"We'll all be able to sleep in here?" Jenni asked.

"With room to spare," Iris assured her. She explained the sleeping capacity of the coach and said that they could figure out the arrangements later as they left the coach. "Mom! Dad!" Iris exclaimed and raced towards her parents, who had just arrived.

"Hey Sweetheart," Linda greeted her daughter.

"You guys having fun?" Wally asked, as Iris and Jai swapped parents.

"Totally," Jai replied, hugging Linda tightly to him.

"You're not bored yet?" Wally asked his daughter.

"No way," Iris beamed.

"I'm kinda glad we're taking a break here the next few days," Jai added.

"Seriously?" Linda and Wally gaped at their twins.

"Racing ducatis at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Screwing around all day at the Great Salt Lake," Jai rattled off.

"Creepy cult place in Wyoming. Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse…we've been busy," Iris finished.

"Creepy cult place?" Linda asked. Jai and Iris laughed as they explained the unusual stop they'd made in Wyoming.

"Okay…" Wally muttered.

They spent an hour or so socialising and hearing about the teens' adventures so far before Jay decided it was time to fire up the grills. Joan had plenty of help carrying food out to the picnic tables as her husband and Jai got to cooking. "I'm just going to stand here," Barry declared once the steaks hit the grills. He was deeply inhaling the delicious aromas coming from the grills. He was also quickly joined by Wally, Max, and Bart who all commented on the savoury smells.

"What do you put on them Sweetie?" Iris Allen asked Milagro.

"I had a feeling someone would ask me that," she chuckled. Iris, Joan, and Linda followed Milagro into the coach where she had a lone steak set up to demonstrate with. "Garlic salt, onion powder, and black pepper," she instructed. "Rub it in and let the steaks sit for a while before cooking."

"That's it?" Linda mused.

"And Damian swears this is better than anything Alfred makes?" Iris added.

"So he says," Milagro shrugged. Using her ring, she floated the steak outside to the grills where Jai plucked it out of the air with a fork and placed it on the grill. Dinner was served and Iris, Linda, and Joan watched with trained eyes as the speedsters ate.

"They're savouring and not wolfing it down," Linda commented.

"That speaks volumes right there, Kiddo," Iris laughed. Milagro smirked as she ate.

"Okay…that is delicious," Joan stated, after trying a piece.

"Gracias," Milagro smiled.

"Kid, I thought Irey was kidding when she said that you thought these were better than Alfred's," Wally told Damian. "I've had steak at the manor and yep…this is better."

"But does it burn your soul to admit that, nearly as much as it does mine?" Damian teased.

"Probably," Wally laughed.

Afterwards, the Titans were playing catch as Nefertiti made herself comfortable on Joan's lap. Jenni and Iris had cleaned up the dishes and put the extra food away at speed, before joining in on the game. As it got darker and the fireflies came out, Milagro marvelled at the insects again. Jai suggested hooking his laptop up to the Garrick's television, so he could show everyone their pictures. Joan hoisted Nefertiti up towards her shoulder and carried the cat inside.

"Does anyone else see the humour in the colours of the two states?" Linda asked. They were looking at one of the aerial shots Lian had taken of the state line between Nevada and Utah.

"We had fun commenting on the contrast, Mom," Iris laughed.

"Tell me you went flat out Irey," Wally asked.

"Duh," Iris snorted. "Although because of how slick it is, you have to build up speed gradually, before going full out."

"That does look creepy," Joan admitted of the shots they had taken of the resort in Wyoming. She suddenly burst out laughing and petted Nefertiti. "Even you thought so too," she said at a picture Lian had taken of the disgruntled cat. Nefertiti for her part merely yawned and went back to her nap on Joan's lap.

"Pretty impressive for just five days," Jay commented when the last of the photos was shown.

"Now you see why I'm looking forward to the next few days Dad?" Jai asked.

"I guess so," Wally admitted.

"It's getting late," Barry said after a while. "Say hi to Mrs Kent for us," he said as he hugged his grandchildren and great niece and nephew.

"We will," Jenni promised.

"Have fun, stay safe…behave," Linda directed the last one to her son.

"She's got your number geek boy," Lian teased.

"Shut up," Jai muttered.

"You guys run into any trouble and need a hand, don't be afraid to call and ask for help," Wally offered.

"We will keep the offer in mind Mr West," Damian replied. Wally shuddered at the formality and Damian smirked.

"You're a punk," Wally declared, giving Damian a dirty look.

"I do have Richard and Jason as influences in my life," Damian retorted. Farewells and well wishes were exchanged and all too soon it was just the Garricks and Titans alone in the house. Most of them retired soon afterwards.

The following morning Joan prepared a large breakfast for everyone. "I know you have just a short drive today, but three of you are speedsters," she said when Lian commented on the amount of food Joan had made.

"This is true," Lian admitted. "Ah blood supply," she murmured, pouring a cup of coffee for herself. Joan chuckled at Lian's delight in the strong black coffee. "Oh! Before I forget," Lian added suddenly. She dashed out to the coach and came back with a small gift box. "We wanted you to have this as thanks for having us," she said, presenting Joan with the box.

"You didn't need to do that Dear," Joan told her as she set the box on the table and opened it. "Oh my. It's lovely," she murmured taking out the small bronze statue inside.

"It's a 1/1200 scale model of what the finished Crazy Horse sculpture will look like," Lian explained. "We were each given one while we were there. And since Dad and I already have one, I offered to give you mine…as thanks for putting up with us."

"Thank you Sweetheart," Joan smiled at Lian. "I have the perfect place for it," she added, wandering over to a curio cabinet. Lian grinned when she saw that the bronze was put in a spot where it stood out.

"We have one for Mrs Kent too," Lian added as they went back to the dining room.

"So is Courtney coming here and riding over with us, or is she meeting us there?" Iris was asking Bart as they entered the dining room.

"She's meeting us at the Kent farm," Bart replied. "Thanks Grandma Joan," he said and kissed her cheek.

"You're welcome Sweetheart," Joan replied, patting his cheek.

They cleaned up after breakfast and thanked the Garrick's again for their generous hospitality. Jay and Joan went outside and watched as they departed. Chris backed the coach out of the drive with a skill that Joan had to comment on. She laughed when Bart informed her that the youngest Kent could drive a tractor, so a large coach towing a trailer was nothing for the young man. Last hugs were exchanged before everyone piled into the coach or land rover.

"Give Martha our love," Jay called out. He was inundated with a chorus of 'we will!'.

"Have a safe and fun trip!" Joan said as she waved to them. Iris had Nefertiti in her arms and was waving one of the cat's paws at the Garrick's. They watched as the two vehicles drove to the end of the street and turned towards the highway. "They're such sweet kids," Joan sighed.

"They're great kids," Jay commented. "You can't even tell there were people here besides us last night," he said, indicating the back yard.

"It'll be right around noon when we get to Granma's place," Chris was saying in the coach.

"Well yeah, it's only a two and a half hour drive to Smallville from Central," Bart pointed out.

Just outside of Smallville, they spotted a farmer's market. Lian suggested they stop to load up on their food supply. Chris was greeted by several of the vendors and he politely greeted them back, occasionally introducing a member of the team if they were nearby. Jenni saw a stall selling flowers and was drawn to it. "We should get some for Mrs Kent," Lian suggested.

"I was thinking the same thing," Jenni chuckled. Strategically placed next to the flower stall was a local potter selling hand thrown vases. Jenni held one up as Lian judiciously picked out flowers for an arrangement she had in mind. "How about this one?" Lian narrowed her eyes at it and tilted her head slightly as she considered it. "This one?" Jenni asked, holding up a second vase.

"I like that one," Lian said. Jenni paid for the vase and went over to Lian. Milagro meanwhile had a system working where she picked out produce, paid for it, and had one of the boys take it back to the coach.

"Dang, that girl's a pro," Iris murmured as she stored the various items brought to her in the coach.

"As Mila is spending practically nothing on all of this…yeah she is," Jai replied, handing over a large bag of tomatoes.

"May I try one of those?" Milagro was asking a pepper farmer.

"They're pretty hot young lady," the farmer warned as he cut a jalapeno for her. Milagro thanked him and slowly chewed the piece of jalapeno, testing its heat.

"Es muy buen Señor," Milagro grinned. She proceeded to select two dozen of the peppers as the farmer stared at her in amazement.

"You're not even sweating," the farmer commented as he accepted Milagro's money.

"I'm Mexican…we eat those for breakfast," she winked.

"Pico de gallo?" Chris asked.

"Yup!"

They finished up at the market and headed for the Kent farm. Martha Kent was sitting on the front porch with several older Titans when they pulled up. "My three favourite blondes," Bart grinned as he hugged and kissed the one in the middle.

"Flirt," Courtney teased, before nuzzling against his chest.

"Hopeless, you mean," Cassie snorted.

"A for effort," Kara laughed.

"Hi Granma!" Chris greeted as he hugged Martha.

"Hello Sweetie," she grinned up at him. "You've grown…again." Chris simply shrugged at her.

"We got these for you Mrs Kent," Lian said, presenting the flowers to her.

"They're lovely, thank you, Lian," Martha smiled as she accepted the vase. "Kara, be a dear and put these on the table please?"

"Sure Ma," Kara replied and took the vase.

Damian had just finished hooking the coach up to the water and septic system on the farm. He went inside to quickly wash his hands before going to greet Martha. "My thanks for allowing us to stay a few days, Mrs Kent," he told her.

"The more the merrier around here," Martha replied giving him a hug.

"Where's Kon?" Bart asked, looking around for his friend.

"He's helping a neighbour harvest hay," Kara stated as she came back outside. "He should be back in a bit."

"I'm back now," Connor called out as he landed next to Cassie. "How's the trip been so far?" he asked.

"Would you believe exhausting?" Iris laughed.

"Oh this I have to hear," he laughed.

"The girls and I made lunch, so why not come on inside and tell us all about it," Martha invited. Connor headed upstairs to quickly clean up before rejoining the others.

"Okay, those are trippy," Milagro stated, looking at some rocks on display around the living room.

"Holy c…those are palasite meteorites!" Lian exclaimed.

"Que?"

"Iron nickel meteorites with peridot crystals inside," Lian explained.

"Seriously? That's Jaime's and my birthstone!" Milagro grinned. "And no, our parents didn't plan it that way. It just happened," she laughed.

"Wow, you've got a ton of it," Lian stated as she spied the various pieces.

"Not quite," Kara chuckled. "We found seventy five kilos worth of palasite though. A couple of Christmases back."

"Yeah…all thanks to Kara," Chris snorted.

"You had it coming," she pointed out.

"If you girls like, you're welcome to take a piece each," Martha told Lian and Milagro.

"We couldn't" Lian gaped.

"That's very generous though," Milagro added.

"Like you pointed out, we have quite a bit of it…we can spare a few pieces," Martha insisted.

"Knock yourselves out," Connor added. Lian cautiously selected the smallest piece she could see, while Milagro picked out a piece that had a lot of peridot in it.

"Could you cut this in half, one for Jaime and one for me, por favor?" Milagro asked Kara.

"Sure. Be right back," Kara said, taking the piece of meteorite outside "Ta da," she exclaimed when she came back in with the perfectly halved stone.

"Muchas gracias!"

"Thank you so much Mrs Kent," Lian gushed, hugging the matriarch.

"Muchas gracias Doña Kent," Milagro added. Lian offered to take the meteorite pieces to the coach and Milagro gingerly handed hers over.

The team began telling of their trip so far, over lunch. Martha delighted in hearing of some of the places they had been to and asked plenty of questions. She understood Lian's excitement over the meteorite pieces when Chris explained about how Lian was practically purring in the museum in Salt Lake City.

"I like rocks…what can I say?" Lian shrugged.

"And sixty five million year old dirt," Jai teased.

"Apocalyptic fallout," Lian corrected. She explained to Martha about the KT boundary clay she had Chris get her in Wyoming. "It's the fallout from the meteor that took out the dinosaurs."

"I've seen shows about that on TV," Martha stated.

"I can show you when we give you a tour of the bus," Lian offered.

"You guys have Nefertiti with you, right?" Connor asked.

"She was snoring her little head off in the bus a few minutes ago," Lian replied.

"Well this is a farm…she's welcome to run around if she wants," Connor offered.

"I'm sure she will appreciate it," Damian said. "She enjoyed herself at the Garrick home yesterday."

"She's been enjoying the whole trip so far," Chris pointed out.

"Why don't you guys go get your swimsuits on?" Kara suggested as she and Cassie got up to clear the table. "You've got them on already," she chuckled, when Lian, Jenni, and Iris all plucked at bikini straps under their tops.

"I might have mentioned the swimming hole earlier," Chris grinned. "Let's show Granma our home away from home first," he added, holding out Martha's chair.

"It's one of those mobile mansions you see on those travel shows, isn't it?" Martha asked as they walked towards the coach.

"Father spared no expense when he purchased it," Damian replied, holding the door for her and offering her his hand.

"And this must be Nefertiti," Martha cooed. Nefertiti was sitting on the passenger seat grooming her coat. Martha held her hand out for the cat to inspect. Nefertiti rewarded her by rubbing against Martha's hand and purring. "There's plenty of space here for you to run around little lady," Martha told her.

"Oop, she's spotted something," Iris said when the cat suddenly became alert.

"You're welcome to take out any and all rats," Martha called out when the cat slinked from the coach towards the barn. "Krypto's caught a few of them, but he can't seem to snag the parents," she added. "Oh…Bruce has taste," she complimented when she got a good look inside the coach.

Chris was showing Martha where they all slept at night when Iris yelped. "That was fast! Oh no you don't cat," she exclaimed and hopped out of the coach to keep Nefertiti from bringing her prize inside.

"If she's that quick, she's more than welcome to play outside," Martha stated from an open window near the kitchen area. "What did she catch Connor?"

"Looks like she caught Dad," he replied.

"Eww…it's still twitching," Iris grimaced.

"That's because he doesn't know he's dead yet," Connor shrugged. Damian offered to dispose of the rat but Connor waved him off. "In the event he does make a last ditch effort to save his life, he'll just break his teeth on me…see?" Connor smirked when the rat attempted to bite him. Iris made a small horrified noise when Connor turned to take the rat away. She'd heard a little snap and assumed that he'd broken its neck to put it of its misery.

"You're a good girl," Martha congratulated the cat. "There's plenty more back there, so knock yourself out." Nefertiti ignored Martha as she glared at Connor's retreating back.

"We should probably keep the door closed," Damian murmured. "She's decimated a gopher colony back at the manor. Nothing like finding one of those at three in the morning…on the floor…inside."

Jai shuddered and groaned at the thought and Martha glanced at him. "You didn't grow up with pets, did you?"

"Nope….uhg," he shuddered again.

"Chica…Leroy just catches and eats them," Milagro explained to the cat. "No ceremony…no showing off his prize…just catch and snack." Iris shuddered and Milagro laughed at her.

"Leroy?" Martha asked Chris.

"Her somewhat sister-in-law's pet iguana," Lian replied.

"Somewhat sister-in-law?"

"Her brother and his girlfriend have pretty much been married since they first met," Chris snorted. "They just haven't made it official yet." Martha nodded in understanding.

"Jeeze, what a dump," Kara teased as she poked her head in the door. "You're definitely travelling in style."

"I'll be sure to pass along your critique to Father," Damian smirked at her.

"Please don't," Kara giggled nervously.

"Why don't you all go and have fun," Martha suggested.

"Wanna come with us?" Kara asked.

"I might wander over and join you later," Martha smiled. "Now go on, shoo," she playfully dismissed the youths.

Milagro made a platform with her ring that Lian and Damian hopped on. Jai grabbed Jenni's offered hand and lifted off into the air with her. The other flyers took to the air as the speedsters raced along the ground. Towards the back of the property was a large pond. A tree grew beside it that had a rope tied to it for swinging on and planks nailed to the trunk to better enable climbing.

"When Chris said swimming hole, I didn't think it was this big," Lian commented.

"It's deep too," Connor informed her.

"Perfectly safe for idiot, dare devil, teenage boys," Kara smirked, looking at Jai and Bart in particular. Jenni howled in laughter at her cousins' expense.

"We dug it out a couple of summers ago," Chris added. "It's about twenty feet deep in most places." Bart demonstrated by racing up the tree and diving in head first.

"Show off," Lian snorted when Damian did a perfect backwards swan dive off the platform once Bart surfaced.

"Not bad, Ese," Milagro smirked. She set Lian down next to the tree and produced a diving platform with her ring. The others watched as she landed atop the platform and turned her back to the water, carefully balancing on her toes at the very edge of the platform. Milagro took a deep breath and then vaulted off the platform. She did two somersaults with a full twist and landed in the water with minimal splash. Milagro surfaced to a loud roar of cheering and applause from her teammates. "Two time Texas State and National junior champion…bring it, Ese," she smirked at Damian.

"How come neither you, nor your brother has ever said anything about that?" Cassie asked in amazement.

"I'm shooting for a spot in the Olympics next year…we kind of wanted to keep it hush-hush because I'm a super hero. Even though my powers come from the ring and not me," Milagro replied. The cheers erupted again along with chants of 'USA'. "Oh whoa, whoa, whoa," Milagro said, holding up her hands. "Because of my parents, I can qualify for the Mexican team too. I mean I'd be proud to represent either one…so…"

"Red, white, and blue, or red, white, and green…who cares," Connor laughed. "Either way, I know who I'm cheering for." Everyone loudly agreed with him.

"Gracias," Milagro replied sheepishly. She did a couple more demonstration dives at her teammate's insistence before letting the diving platform disappear. "Ten metre dives are hard on the neck," she stated.

"She makes cannonballs look elegant," Jenni commented, as Milagro cannon-balled into the pond a little while later. Cassie couldn't help but agree.

"Oh. By the way," Connor laughed suddenly. "Tim might have a word with you guys about remotely changing the wallpaper on the main screen at Titan's Tower."

"We only wanted to show you some of the scenery of this great country of ours," Jai replied with a straight face.

"Some scenery," Courtney laughed. "Your bare ass next a sign that reads Yellow Butte."

"Even Raven laughed at that one," Connor added.

"I haven't checked, but did he leave it up?" Jai asked.

"Surprisingly, yes he did," Cassie chuckled. "He's hoping your Dad stops by."

"Dad I'm not worried about," Jai scoffed.

"He'd pull the same stunt in Jai's place," Iris confessed.

"Actually he has," Lian piped up. "Years ago when they were the Teen Titans. It's one of my Dad's favourite pictures of him and Uncle Wally."

"The Twin Buttes one?" Iris laughed.

"Besides," Damian purred. "We do have a counter argument if Timothy should bring it up."

"This ought to be good," Bart chuckled.

"We left Rushmore intact," Damian's grin was matched by his fellow travellers.

"Ooo, smack!" Connor groaned.

"That's low," Cassie chuckled.

"Unless you know what to look for, you can hardly tell it ever happened," Chris smiled sweetly.

"We know what to look for," Damian quickly added.

"Worst thing we did there, was have Chris and Jai recite the school report from _I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'_," Lian added.

"You sweet wonderful boys you," Kara laughed.

They just finished telling the others about the dousing Chris had given Jai when Martha wandered up to the swimming hole with Nefertiti in tow. "Damian dear? Is there any way I can convince you to leave her here?"

Damian shook his head no. "I'm sorry, but no."

"She caught another rat?" Iris asked squeamishly.

"She's caught two more rats," Martha replied.

"Can you do one more high dive?" Chris suddenly asked Milagro.

"Sure."

"Granma, you need to see this!" Chris grinned.

Everyone got out of the pond as Milagro produced a diving platform again. Martha watched as the girl flew to the top and gingerly did a handstand at the very edge of the platform. Milagro inhaled deeply through her nostrils and pushed herself from the platform. Martha gasped as Milagro somersaulted three times before hitting the water.

"Bravo!" Martha called out as she applauded loudly when Milagro surfaced.

"Mila's going to try and make the Olympics next year," Kara said.

Martha paused and scrutinised Milagro for a moment before grinning. "You're a Green Lantern, so you don't have any natural meta abilities."

"And the ring comes off when I do compete," Milagro assured her.

"Good for you, I hope you do make it," Martha exclaimed. Milagro held up two sets of crossed fingers. Martha made her way over to a bench swing and took a seat. "I have spaghetti sauce cooking, is that alright for everyone for dinner?" she asked.

"That sounds fantastic Mrs Kent," Jenni grinned. The others voiced their approval along with Jenni.

"I'm glad," Martha smiled. "It'll be ready in about another hour or so," she added. Several of the Titans wearing watches all glanced at the time.

"Jeeze, we've been out here that long?" Jai muttered.

"We've been screwing around out here before until after nightfall before realising it," Connor said.

"Why don't we head back now…that way we're relatively dry when dinner's ready," Cassie suggested.

Unlike the super powered hurry they'd arrived at the pond in, they ambled back to the house along with Martha. Bart was a little ahead of them playing tag with Nefertiti as they went. The cat would crouch down in the long grass before rushing out to attack Bart's ankles. She'd scurry into the grass again and wait for Bart to come close enough before attacking again. This went on until they reached the shorter grass of the back yard. Nefertiti then feigned innocence and completely ignored Bart's attempts to get her to chase him. She trotted up the back stairs and sat primly, waiting for the others to join her.

In the kitchen, Martha had no shortage of hands offering to help out. She finally assigned her volunteers different tasks to keep them out of her way. Connor suggested they eat outside and soon the volunteers were tasked with taking dinner out to the picnic table. Chris and Cassie sat with Martha at the table as the others sat on the porch or in chairs next to the coach. While Martha Kent didn't have the decades of experience that Joan Garrick did when it came to feeding speedsters, she'd had enough practice so that no one was left hungry. It was when dessert was suggested that things got interesting.

"This is what happens when you base a culturally diverse team in a cosmopolitan city like San Francisco," Kara chuckled. "They all become foodies, if they weren't already."

"So I see," Martha murmured as she looked down at the exotic sundae before her. A ball of chocolate ice cream, rolled until covered in dark chocolate chips, and drizzled with maple syrup and crumbled bacon pieces.

"That will hit spots, you never knew you had," Kara encouraged. Martha Kent wasn't one to not try something new, at least once. She took a tentative spoonful and savoured the flavour for a moment.

"And this is dirt simple to put together isn't it?" Martha asked as she dug in.

"Who stumbled onto this one and where?" Lian asked as she finished her sundae.

"Tim and I did at that ice cream parlour just off Castro and Market streets," Bart supplied. "Not long after we set up shop in San Francisco," he added. The conversation switched to unusual foods that people thought they'd never like but had come to love. Martha was about to go get a pad and pen to write some of the recipes down, but Bart told her not to bother. He did it for her in less than two seconds. The notepad was still warm when he handed it over to her.

The following morning was grey and drizzly but that didn't stop the dozen Titans from going outside and playing in it. Martha could hear the occasional yell coming from the corn field as she fiddled around in the kitchen. She was out on the back porch when she heard them coming back around lunchtime. She was pointing to the barn and told the sodden group that there were fresh changes of clothes in the barn loft for all of them. The boys opted to shower and change in the barn, while the girls took off for the coach to do the same.

"I am never going to play hide and seek, in a corn field, in the rain, with a Bat again," Chris muttered as he wandered into the house a little while later. Damian laughed aloud while Chris shot him a dirty look.

Chris helped himself to a sandwich from the platter on the table and wandered out into the sitting room. Milagro, Iris, and Courtney were playing a heated round of poker around the coffee table. Martha was in her favourite chair reading with Nefertiti lounging on the back of it. Chris flopped onto the sofa and before he knew it, he was lying down and fast asleep.

Jenni had wandered out to the back porch and was leaning against the railing, watching the rain as it steadily fell. Jai saw her through the kitchen window and decided to join her.

"Watcha thinking about?" Jai asked as Jenni placed her head against his shoulder.

"The Legion," she murmured.

"You miss them?"

"Well yeah, they're my friends," Jenni said. "But I don't miss the future…does that make any sense?" she asked glancing up at her kid cousin.

"No," Jai chuckled. Jenni sighed.

"In the future there's technology to control the weather for instance," she pointed out, indicating the rain with a wave of her hand. "But you don't have that yet here. Many of the Legion would consider being stranded here in this era as torture almost."

"You don't though," Jai stated.

"No I don't," Jenni replied. "And I think that would still be true even if I didn't have family in this era," she added.

Jai put his arm across her shoulders and they watched the rain in silence for a while. Jenni glanced up and smiled at the stubble on Jai's chin. She remembered the withdrawn taciturn boy he'd been when she was first stranded in the past. A fateful camping trip had gotten him to open up and come out of his shell. Jenni had used her flight ring and taken Jai soaring through the air so that he could play along with Bart and Iris. She'd made him see that powers weren't everything and he'd taken that lesson and forged his own identity as Firewall. Jenni had never shied away from telling him on numerous occasions how proud of him she was. Jai always replied that he had her to thank for it in the first place. Jenni stood on tiptoes and kissed Jai's whiskered cheek.

"I think I figured out what it is that doesn't make me miss the future," she murmured.

"Hmm?"

"This," she said, indicating their surroundings with a wave of her hand. "Peace."

TBC…

_A/N: (part 2) There are allusions in this chapter to shorts in my vignette series starring the kids.._


	4. Bats in DC

Road Trip – Bats in Washington DC

_A/N: They'll eventually meet up with all their families at some point in this. This time its Damian's turn._

Nefertiti glared at Damian from her newest hiding place on the coach. They had left the Kent farm at around seven in the morning and were heading for a town near Louisville, Kentucky. Damian had gotten one good look at his beloved cat and grimaced. She was filthy. She had cobwebs tangled in her whiskers and coat as well as the odd piece of straw. Her paws were a dark brown instead of their usual gunmetal grey from mud and she had a peculiar odour coming off of her. There was evidence left in front of the coach and on both porches of the farmhouse that she had had a grand time getting as dirty as she was. Martha Kent had removed the corpses before the more squeamish of the teenagers saw them. As they were saying their farewells that morning, Martha tried one more time to see if Damian would leave his cat at the farm. In two days, Nefertiti had eliminated the family of rats that had tried to make a home out of the Kent's barn. Jai only wished that he had set up a camera to catch the action he could hear coming from the master suite as Damian gave Nefertiti a much needed bath.

"So on a scale of one to ten, how pissed off is she?" Chris asked over the video comm.

"Twenty three," Jai replied. "I heard yowling earlier…not sure if it was the cat or the bat."

"Yeah well Nefer-kitty was pretty ripe this morning…she needed it," Lian commented. She had volunteered to ride with Chris to avoid being roped into helping Damian with the cat. Iris and Milagro liked the idea as well and were sprawled in the two rows of backseats in the land rover.

"Should we call ahead to the Topeka blood bank and reserve a couple pints of A negative?" Iris giggled.

"Seeing as the only hissing I've heard has come from Nefer-kitty and not D, I think we can hold off on that call," Jai replied. "Uh oh…incoming," he added when he heard the door to the master suite open.

Jai listened to the tinkling of a cat-bell as Nefertiti scurried towards one of the sofas and hid behind it. Damian stopped in front of the first aid kit and got out supplies to tend to the numerous scratches he had acquired minutes earlier. He poured a cup of coffee and wandered to the front of the coach to take a seat next to Jai. Damian propped his feet up on the dashboard and leaned back in the seat before coolly regarding his teammates on the video comm.

"You are all cowards," Damian proclaimed as he began tending to a nasty scratch on his wrist.

"Not cowardice…laziness. Your cat, your responsibility," Milagro shot back.

"I'm sticking with my original assumption of cowardice," Damian replied. He regarded the cleaned scratch on his wrist and frowned. Applying a salve Alfred had made, Damian then applied a small bandage to the wound.

"Only you could go to the animal shelter and pick out the one kitten with hygiene habits completely opposite of yours," Lian joked.

"The coincidence has not escaped me," Damian frowned as he tended to the next scratch. "The water that came off of her when I rinsed her off the first time was darker than she is," he added.

Several hours passed before they pulled off the highway to have lunch and swap out drivers. Damian shot Nefertiti a look when she came bounding out from behind the sofa to greet the three girls. The cat noticed her master's look and meowed loudly at him. "That's right you tell him," Lian nodded.

"Please desist in encouraging her," Damian muttered.

"We have dinner plans?" Jai asked, as he browsed on his laptop.

"Not yet, porque?" Milagro replied.

"There's a really popular restaurant in Jeffersonville," Jai said. He read the description and several reviews on the website. "And it's two blocks down from where we're staying." Jai looked up and saw that his teammates were regarding each other.

"Want to call ahead and make reservations?" Iris asked when they all had agreed that the restaurant sounded like a good idea. Jai picked up his mobile and placed their reservation for eight that evening. Once in Jeffersonville, they had about two hours to get ready for dinner. The three girls delighted in picking on their male counterparts for taking longer to get ready then they had. The boys countered with the argument that they all had taken longer because they all had to shave. Piling into the land rover they headed off for the restaurant located on the riverbank.

"Table for six under Jai West," Jai informed the hostess.

"Deck or inside?" she smiled up at him.

"Deck," came six replies. The hostess laughed as she led them to a large table out on the deck looking across the Ohio River towards downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

"Whoa," Iris commented at the view.

"Check it out," Milagro said, pointing to the waterfront. "One of those old paddle steamers!"

Jai told them about the paddle steamer and that he'd read about it when he'd found the recommendation for the restaurant. Their waiter took their orders and said that he'd be right back with their drinks. Chris leaned back in his seat as the others conversed when his hearing picked up on a conversation at another table. He glanced over his shoulder pretending to take in the view and spied two women seated at a table near the end of the deck. From what he heard, the two had only been to the area once before, for a friend's wedding. There had been another woman with them then and the two at the table recounted the evening they had had at the restaurant after their newly wedded friend had left for her honeymoon. He listened for a moment longer and heard that the missing friend from that night had since passed away and the two were celebrating her birthday in her memory.

"Excuse me," Chris piped up when their waiter returned with their drinks. "Can I take care of their cheque? Anonymously please?" he asked, indicating the two women with a nod.

"Uh sure," the waiter replied. The waiter left to get the cheque as the others all looked at Chris.

"I'll tell you later," he promised. The waiter returned a little while later with their food when one of the women indicated that they'd like their cheque. Chris listened as the waiter went over to them.

"I heard you ladies talking and told my boss about why you were here," he lied easily. "She said to toss your bill and that dinner is on the house." Chris smiled as the two women thanked the waiter.

Jai raised an eyebrow as they left arm in arm a few minutes later before turning and smirking at Chris. "Two smoking hot women…slightly older…single from the looks of it, and British from the sounds of it. Spill pal," he demanded.

"They were celebrating the birthday of a late friend," Chris replied and proceeded to tell the others what all he had heard.

"You're a sweetheart," Lian said and leaned over to give him a peck on the cheek.

"Your Mama raised you right," Milagro said as she kissed his other cheek. Not to be outdone, Iris got up from her seat and went to stand behind Chris and hug him.

"You big old softy," she teased.

"If this is what I get for random acts of kindness, I should do it more often," Chris laughed. The three girls smacked him playfully as Jai and Damian laughed. "Good job on fudging the story," Chris told the waiter a while later.

"I hope you don't mind us taking the credit, but people tend to get weirded out when you tell them that it was someone anonymous paying for them," the waiter apologised.

"Not a problem at all," Chris grinned.

The following morning Lian was driving the land rover while Milagro took control of the coach. It wasn't quite sunrise yet when they had left for another eleven hours of driving to the nation's capitol. Lian could barely hear the snoring that Milagro was getting an earful of. Chris and Damian were both sound asleep and snoring away merrily. Every once in a while Jai could be heard further back in the coach as he slept deeply. "They're too comfortable," Milagro murmured so as not to wake them. Lian just laughed.

"Looks like someone's awake," Lian said a while later looking at the video screen.

"Yeah, Irey," Milagro replied.

"Mornin'," Iris mumbled, holding a cup of coffee.

"Couldn't sleep?" Milagro asked.

"Oh my god…three buzz-saws," Iris complained. "What were they doing all night?"

"Online Halo marathon," Lian replied.

"Okay…where we swapping out at?" Iris asked, changing the subject.

"Mila insists we do so in Pittsburgh," Lian chuckled.

"Why?"

"So I can take some pictures for Papi of 'sacred ground', as he calls it," Milagro smirked. She glanced over and saw Iris raise a curious eyebrow. Lian had the same look on the video comm. "He's a lifelong Steelers fan, even before he emigrated from Mexico," she explained.

"Hnn," Iris shrugged. "Sorry hockey fanatics here," she added for Milagro, indicating Lian and herself.

"No problemo," Milagro chuckled.

"You'll forgive us then when we boo and hiss at the penguin pen if we pass it?" Iris grinned. Now it was Milagro's turn to be confused.

"Penguin pen?"

"The Penguins are the really good hockey team from Pittsburgh," Lian muttered darkly.

"Didn't they just win the Stanley…?" Milagro stopped when Iris and Lian started hissing in disgust. "Never mind."

"You know," Iris piped up a while later. "Jai's more of a hockey fan than football fan. And Damian could care less about pro sports…"

"Chris on the other hand," Lian smirked.

"Can be a man and suck it up," Milagro snorted.

Once in Pittsburgh, Chris had no intention of being a man and sucking it up. Milagro figured as much and hit him where it counted. "The pictures are for a wonderful, older, handicapped man from Mexico who is a lifelong fan of the Steelers…deal with it."

"Low blow Mila. Low blow," Chris muttered as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Oh you're good," Lian laughed.

"I've had a lifetime of practice on Jaime," Milagro smirked.

Back on the road again, they made good time getting to the nation's capitol and a penthouse Bruce Wayne kept in the city. Once parked in the private garage of the building, Damian led his team to the penthouse. He was surprised when Alfred opened the door for them just as Damian was about to put the key into the lock.

"Father's in town?" Damian asked after the team returned Alfred's greeting. Damian set Nefertiti down and the cat bounded off to one of her favourite places in the penthouse.

"We relocated temporarily, Master Damian," Alfred replied, leading them to the drawing room.

Bruce was standing behind Tim at the desk, who was typing furiously away at his laptop. Barbara had three computers running and was easily working between the three. Tim's wife Tam was collating whatever Tim and Barbara were working on, while Dick, Jason, and Cassandra were studying a map of the capitol's roughest neighbourhood. Bruce looked up when Alfred led the teenagers into the drawing room and gave them a curt nod. "Good, you're here."

"What's happened?" Damian asked, immediately joining his father and reading over Tim's shoulder.

"Black Mask is trying to branch out, we're going to nip it in the bud," Dick grinned.

"I trust that you all have your evening attire?" Bruce asked the team. Damian chuckled softly at his father's side, while Lian rolled her eyes and Milagro held up her ring hand. "DC police asked the Justice League for assistance in this instance. As Black Mask is primarily a Gotham concern, I told the League that I'd handle this. I also knew that you were going to be in the area and worked out a plan to utilise the Teen Titans."

"You'll actually let us work this with you?" Chris asked hopefully.

"We're not in Gotham, so yeah, you guys are more than welcome aboard," Tim smirked.

"Jai, hook your work tablet up to me, and take over for Tim would you?" Barbara asked. Jai grinned and grabbed the tablet from his backpack to do as he'd been asked. He took the seat behind the desk that Tim had just occupied and went to work studying what his mentor was working on.

"Okay kids, here's the plan," Tim addressed the teenagers. Damian listened in as he continued to read over Jai's shoulder.

"Superboy, you'll be the only one not in stealth gear. I need a highly visible target," Bruce addressed Chris after Tim had stated the mission objective.

"Yes Sir," Chris acknowledged.

"Superboy, you and Red Hood are in charge of busting up their meeting tonight and flushing the warehouse," Tim instructed. "Disable any vehicles and secure the site."

"And be as loud and obnoxious as possible," Jason added. Chris snorted a laugh as Tim nodded.

"Once they've scattered, you two are on round up with the rest of us," Tim added.

"Firewall, once the warehouse has been flushed and secured, you need to get access to their system and hook it up for Oracle to download. Blackbat will cover you," Tim added. Jai gave an acknowledging wave as Cassandra nodded.

"Lantern, you're our air support," Tim stated. "Your job is to round up anyone who doesn't run into company."

"Si jefe," Milagro grinned.

"KF, you're backing her up on the ground." Iris cracked her knuckles in response.

"Robin, you and Arsenal will be lying in wait with the rest of us once the warehouse has been flushed," Tim added.

"The cops will have a perimeter established five blocks out from the site," Dick added, pointing to the map.

"The only work I want them to be doing is hauling away suspects," Bruce added. "Is that clear?"

"Tam is our field coordinator and Oracle is overall OPS manager," Tim finished.

Hours later after the sun had set Superboy carried Red Hood to the roof of the warehouse. Scanning with his x-ray vision, Superboy confirmed that the place was packed with thugs and criminals. Red Hood murmured over their comms that he recognised a majority of them from Gotham. Green Lantern flew in low, carrying the rest team on a ring generated platform. Batman signalled to everyone to take their places as various Bats and Titans scattered to cover the warehouse. Green Lantern floated Blackbat and Firewall up to roof across from Superboy and Red Hood. Once in place, Batman ordered Superboy and Red Hood to flush the warehouse.

Red Hood smirked as Superboy smashed through the roof of the warehouse, ripping a gaping hole in the process for Red Hood, Blackbat, and Firewall to gain access through. Blackbat and Firewall stood back as Red Hood dived through the hole, guns blazing. "Any time you two want to join the party," Red Hood called out. Firewall chuckled as Blackbat rolled her eyes before they both dived through the hole in the roof.

"Firewall," Blackbat called out and pointed to an office. He nodded and the two made for the office as Red Hood and Superboy continued to wreak havoc in the warehouse. They both dived for cover when a vehicle exploded nearby. Superboy gave them a shrug and meek apology before blasting at the wheels of a truck several of the thugs were trying to get to. Once at the office, Firewall waved a hand to Blackbat, who gave a tiny smile before barging in and beating the two crooks inside senseless. "All clear," she called out.

"Thanking you," Firewall replied as he ambled in. "Okay," he murmured, pulling at a secret pouch on his glove. "I'll give them credit…they accounted for hackers," he continued, pulling three separate usb cables out and hooking them up. He hooked the cables to his other wrist and pulled up the holo screen on his own personal system. "Incoming," he called over the comm system a moment later.

""Babs is grinning over here," Tam replied back at the penthouse. Nefertiti was perched on the desk next to her watching Tam's screen.

"Jai hon, tell me I'm dreaming," Barbara purred over the comm. She spotted a backdoor to Black Mask's entire system.

"Nope. But if you were, they'd be some sweet dreams," he chuckled in response when he spotted the backdoor. From the office door, Blackbat looked over towards Firewall and shook her head.

"Warehouse is cleared," Superboy called over the comm.

"Round them up," Batman instructed.

"Play nice, Kiddies," Nightwing chuckled.

"As if," Arsenal snorted. She leapt down from her hiding place and took out three thugs in a matter of seconds.

"GL, got some for ya," Kid Flash called over the comm. She looked up at the green bindings that shot out to secure the criminals she'd rounded up.

"Tagged and bagged," Green Lantern chuckled, as she tucked them into a cage construct she had sitting nearby.

"Presents!" Superboy chuckled, carrying a trio of thugs towards the cage.

"You're too good to me," she laughed, securing his catch.

Superboy did a quick headcount of the rounded up thugs. "We're missing five," he called out.

"Three," Batman corrected as he and Red Robin secured two prisoners.

"I've got one of them here," Red Hood responded. A green hand suddenly appeared and snagged the startled thug from his hiding spot.

"And the last two are here," Robin added in a smug manner.

"Superboy?" Batman called out. He did another more thorough count and confirmed that they had rounded up all the suspects.

"That's all of them, Sir," Superboy confirmed.

"Lantern, take them to the police perimeter," Batman instructed. "The rest of you, make yourselves scarce.

"Blackbat and Firewall, clear out, Oracle has everything they need," Tam instructed over the comm. Firewall collected his usb cables and tucked them away before racing after Blackbat and out of the warehouse.

The officer in charge looked up slack jawed at the floating green cage being carried aloft by Green Lantern's ring. "Courtesy of the Justice League and Teen Titans," she cheerfully stated, setting the cage down and waiting until the police had it surrounded before letting part of it dissolve away. Once all of the suspects were in custody, she let the cage vanish into nothing. She acknowledged their thanks with a wave before taking off into the night sky.

"That was quick," an officer stated.

"No kidding," the officer in charge agreed. "Okay people, let's get these guys to headquarters and start booking them," he barked out.

Alfred was waiting for them as they returned to the penthouse in small groups. Iris thanked him profusely for the spread he had waiting before wolfing down three sandwiches in under a minute. Milagro was the last to return to the penthouse. Once she had, Bruce let himself relax a little. "You got everything for the case back in Gotham?" he asked Barbara.

"Everything and then some," she smirked and turned one of her screens around so he could see it.

"Tam?" he asked. She glanced up from where she was listening into police traffic and gave a thumbs up.

"A couple of minor injuries, but that's it. You guys nabbed all of them," she replied.

"You all performed well," Bruce addressed the team. Chris grinned in sheer delight at the praise as Lian smirked in satisfaction. "What are your plans for tomorrow?" he added, in a more relaxed tone.

"The Smithsonian apparently," Damian replied. "And anyone who wants, is most welcome to join us," he added. Jason and Cassandra shared a shrug of agreement, while Tam rubbed her hands together in delight. Tim chuckled and added that he was game for the trip. Damian looked expectedly at his father and Alfred.

"As much as your invitation is appreciated Master Damian, I do have a prior engagement," Alfred replied. Damian nodded.

"I have to wrap this up," Bruce added, indicating Barbara's screen.

"Fair enough," Damian replied.

The following morning Damian was down in the garage with Bruce, showing his father the trip log Milagro was keeping in regards to both the coach and the land rover. "A belt adjustment and a minor tune up? That's it?" Bruce asked as he scoured over the log.

"Milagro is meticulous, and regards the care of our vehicles a personal mission," Damian commented, taking the log from Bruce for a moment and flipping to the back where he was keeping an account of the experimental solar power system.

"You managed to drain it down to fifty three percent," Bruce commented.

"At the Kent farm on our second day there," Damian replied. "The weather was not exactly encouraging to being outdoors, so Jai and several others decided to try and max out the system. Jai said they made an effort to drain it as best they could," he added.

"And they only got it down to fifty three percent," Bruce purred in delight. Jai had made some detailed notes about the day's attempts to drain the system. The sound of an elevator pinging rang out from nearby.

"You ready to hit the Smithsonian?" Tam called out to Damian. Dick and Barbara wouldn't be joining them, as they had left earlier in the morning to return to Gotham.

"I'm driving!" Lian called out, as the teenagers made a dash for the land rover.

"Go and have fun," Bruce said, patting Damian on the shoulder. Damian rolled his eyes and went to join his friends.

At the Natural History portion of the museum, they piled out of the two vehicles and went in. "That way," Lian suggested, pointing to her left. The others shrugged and decided to tag along, until Chris noticed where they were heading. The National Gem Collection.

"Ah crap, did we bring the Lian leash?" Chris said as they entered the gem collection. He easily caught her elbow as she jammed it hard back into his abdomen.

"Why did I think that thing was bigger?" Cassandra remarked, as they came up to the Hope Diamond.

"At one point it was," Lian stated. She gave a brief history of the gem and used her hands to show the approximate size of the original stone discovered in India. "The legend around the thing is what makes it seem larger than life," she added.

"You weren't kidding," Jason remarked to Chris and Jai as Lian went onto another display.

"Told ya," Chris chuckled.

"Rock nerd," Jai added.

In another part of the museum was a temporary exhibit on loan from Mexico. A massive cache from a previously unknown Aztec city. "Oh look…this one has Tam written all over it," Tim laughed. She playfully smacked his arm.

"Hey cool! Family reunion!" Milagro joked as they entered the hall and were greeted by several skeletons from ritual sacrifices. "Hola Tio Ernesto, bad headache? I'm sorry," she chuckled.

"I like her," Tam grinned as Milagro posed for photos next to the grisly remains.

"And you go on about me being morbid," Lian muttered.

"Can't let you have all the fun," Milagro replied, waggling her eyebrows at Lian.

"That had to hurt," Iris grimaced, standing in front of a skull with a gaping hole in the frontal lobe area. Tam stood beside her and counted the numerous cut marks around the hole.

"Fifteen, hnn. I guess the priest was having an off day," Tam remarked.

"I doubt that you'll be able to acquire that one for your macabre collection," Damian commented.

"To bad too, because this one's a doozy," Tam sighed.

"And that's why you're the cool sister in law," Jason chuckled.

"Your whole family's twisted," Iris murmured to Damian.

"I won't argue that point," Damian replied.

"Oh wow!" Tam exclaimed when she spied a skull with the face sheared off.

"Botched face-lift?" Lian suggested.

"Looks like it took them four good whacks to do that," Jason commented as he studied the damage.

"That has a strange artistic quality to it," Cassandra murmured as she looked at the skull.

"It does," Tim agreed. Iris and Chris both looked at Damian who merely held his hands up in surrender.

"They were adopted or married into the family," Damian defended.

"That's a tequila bender that ended badly," Milagro commented across the hall.

"Hey Tam, check this one out," Jai called out.

"You can't have it," Tim commented to his wife.

"Damn girl," Tam said to Milagro. "Your ancestors knew how to bump people off."

"You don't say," Milagro muttered as she looked at a series of photos showing the excavation of the skeleton they were looking at. The victim had been hacked to pieces and then artfully arranged in a grave. The skeleton was displayed in the way it had been found.

"Oh sweet Jesus," Iris grimaced suddenly.

"Whoa," Tam remarked when she saw what Iris was looking at. "Who's a good photographer?" she asked. Fingers were pointed towards Lian, who merely shrugged. A realistic diorama showing an Aztec sacrifice in action had been set up at the end of the hall.

"Relax amigo, this won't hurt a bit," Jason commented dryly.

"Maybe just a little pinch, no biggie," Milagro added. Jason's head fell back as he howled in laughter. "You should hear us when we're discussing the ancestors at my house," she added.

"Remind me to take a trip to El Paso," he laughed. "Cultural of course," he winked.

"And sneak across the border to play with the cartels if you get bored with Mila's family," Tim snorted.

"How are these?" Lian asked Tam, showing the photos she'd taken so far.

"That one's perfect," Tam commented.

"For what?" Tim asked suspiciously.

"Get it blown up and hang it above Fred," Tam replied sweetly.

"Who's Fred?" Milagro asked.

Damian rubbed at his brow. "The candelabra in their dining room," he muttered. Iris smothered a chuckle with her hand.

"Fred is the name I gave a Mayan skull that doubles as a candle holder," Tam admitted.

"You have some of this stuff at your house?" Milagro gaped.

Tam nodded. "You're not offended are you?" she asked warily.

"Oh hell no! They're living it up I'm sure," Milagro assured her. "But you actually collect stuff like this?"

Tam grinned. "Let me show you what all Aunty Tam has at her house!" Jai chimed in and pulled out his smart phone. He pulled up a photo album and let Milagro browse through it.

"Ay Dios mio," Milagro murmured. "When our trip is done, I'm coming to visit and I'm bringing Traci with me," she exclaimed.

"Traci digs the macabre," Tim said letting his head fall back.

Milagro handed Jai's phone back to him and whipped out her own. "This is her room at my house," she said, showing Tam the photo.

"Traci sounds like fun," Tam grinned.

"Her brother's girlfriend," Tim stated. "She's a magi and just a bit twisted. You'd get along famously."

"Call me up when you're trip's over and set it up, we'll make a day of it," Tam grinned, handing Milagro's phone back to her.

"Gracias," she grinned, entering a reminder into the phone.

"You're about to make a friend for life," Cassandra teased Tam.

"Okay, great, fantastic," Jason interrupted. "Next stop, Aerospace!"

They quickly left for the National Air and Space museum to wander around the vast hangers that displayed some of humanity's greatest accomplishments in aeronautical engineering. Iris was the one who pointed out how quickly man had progressed from powered flight on a North Carolina beach, to landing a man on the moon and bringing him back safely.

"Sixty six years from that to that," she grinned, indicating the Wright Flyer I and the Apollo 11 lunar module. Her twin beat Tim to pointing out the slight inaccuracy of time.

"Sixty five years, six months, and twenty eight days," Jai grinned. "Or if you want to get real technical, fifty seven years, three months, and twenty six days, between the Wright brothers and Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to orbit the planet in space," he added with smug satisfaction.

Iris blinked and then turned her head slowly to face her brother. He flashed her a toothy grin and suddenly found himself protecting his head from her numerous slaps. "No one asked for specifics!"

"You're glad you kept your mouth shut now, aren't you?" Cassandra teased Tim.

A little while later it was Milagro who spoke up. "I've seen that," she grinned, pointing up at a replica of the Voyager probes.

Knowing the abilities the Green Lantern ring provided her, Tam asked Milagro to be more specific. "Seen it where?"

"Flew right past it just outside the solar system," she replied with a grin. Tam let out a low whistle. "The funny thing…the one I flew past looks more pristine than that," Milagro added, indicating the replica.

"How?" Jason asked, shaking his head.

Milagro shrugged. "No se. It just does."

"The mother of all dune buggies," Chris cackled as they came up to one of the test lunar rovers.

"All those old Apollo films make it look like those things are a blast to drive around in," Tim stated.

"They weren't very fast," Damian pointed out, reading the specs on display. "But then in one sixth of Earth's gravity, I doubt speed is relevant," he quickly added.

"Aw," Lian said in another portion of the museum. "Dad was kind of heart broken when Spirit got stuck and eventually shut down." A test model of the Martian rovers stood out in stark contrast to a replica of the Martian landscape.

"So was our Dad," Jai added. "He was so tempted to beg one of the Lanterns to go and save it."

"Star Labs and NASA are actually in serious consideration right now to do exactly that," Milagro said.

"Say wha?" Jason gaped.

"They had Hal, John, Guy, Kyle, and me come to a meeting a few months back to discuss the idea," Milagro explained. "They're still debating on whether or not to leave it where it is, or have one of us go to Mars to retrieve it and bring it back. J'onn of all people, said to leave it there. As a monument to Human exploration."

"Dude, if the Martian Manhunter says leave it," Lian started.

"We are all in agreement," Milagro finished, holding up her ring for a second to indicate she was referring to her fellow Green Lanterns.

"Totally irrelevant vote," Iris piped up. "All those who agree with J'onn, say aye." It was unanimous.

After they had toured the museum, Cassandra looked at her watch. "We still have a few hours and the other half of this is just over at Dulles," she suggested. They all shared a glance before racing off to drive over to the second half of the museum.

"I always wanted to see one of these launch," Jai stated, staring up at the space shuttle Discovery on display.

"You have no idea," Tim stated.

"No you don't," Jason added.

"You go on about the misuse of awesome all the time," Tim teased Iris. "But seeing one of these take off? That is awesome!"

"You got to see a launch?" Jai and Chris both enthused.

"I saw it when John Glenn went back up in ninety eight," Tim replied.

"I've seen two launches, a day and a night one," Jason added. "Kick friggin ass!"

"Actually…this is the one I saw take off," Tim added enthusiastically.

"I'm officially jealous," Lian snorted in disgust. "What's wrong Mila?"

"I only ever saw them coming in for landing," she murmured. "I remember when I was real little…Jaime got me all bundled up and we went outside to see Columbia return."

"Oh shit…you saw it when it broke apart?" Tam gaped. Milagro nodded.

"It's my earliest memory," she admitted. "I just remember the pieces streaking away as they broke off and Jaime saying 'no', over and over again. I didn't understand at the time, because I thought the pieces were so pretty. I think about it now and it haunts me."

"That's messed up," Jason stated, placing an arm around Milagro's shoulders and hugging her.

"My sister Tiffany has a friend from Orlando who saw Challenger explode right before her eyes," Tam added.

"That's the one who was waiting for her Mom to pick her up from school?" Tim asked as Tam nodded.

"My sister's friend, Ehlana wasn't feeling good that day, so she went home sick. When she was waiting for her Mom, she saw the launch," Tam explained. "She's still haunted by it, because she knew immediately that something was wrong. So I have an idea of what you must feel," she added to Milagro.

"I feel for your sister's friend," Milagro admitted. "I always wanted to see them take off though."

"An amazing sight, believe me," Tim said.

"At night all you can see is the fire and exhaust, but it's bright as hell," Jason added. "During the day? Damn!"

"The launch I saw was when John Glenn went back up into space," Tim added. "We couldn't get anywhere near the beaches where people watch launches from, so my parents decided to just go and find a place to have brunch instead," he paused and gave a small smile as he recalled the memory. "There were televisions all over the place and they were all tuned to the launch. As soon as the countdown hit zero, the employees of the place all took off outside to the parking lot. We figured that they're locals, so we followed. And there it was. Rising above the trees into the sky…big as day."

"Wow," Jai murmured.

"It was amazing at how clearly you can make everything out," Tim added. "The windows, the freaking joints holding the boosters in place even. It's a memory I cherish."

"Sadly nothing can compare to seeing the real thing right before your eyes," Jason sighed. "TV does not do the launches justice." Tim was shaking his head in agreement.

"All of this…" Damian paused for a moment trying to think of a way to convey what he was feeling. "All of these marvels and achievements in going where no one has before, and our world still needs people like us."

"You do appreciate how insignificant we really are when you're only a little ways out in the solar system," Milagro murmured. She told them about the morning before she joined the team and how she and her brother had taken a side trip to outer space so Milagro could ground herself with her new responsibilities. "I'd had the ring for less than twelve hours and I was in space with Jaime, trying to spot a tiny blue dot."

"Humanity's issues seem trivial?" Lian asked.

"No," Milagro replied honestly. "They make us what we are…at least I think so. Sounds loco I know, but it works for me." She caught the disbelieving looks and shrugged. "Next time you find yourself on the Watchtower, take a look out the window. Trust me; you'll get what I mean."

"Meh," Jason snorted after a moment. "I figure that we're all just a pack of animals and that we'll one day grow up."

"Typical," Damian chuckled. He suddenly startled a little along with his siblings as their mobiles went off. "Alfred?"

"Yep, wondering when we're heading back," Tim replied. He texted a reply back that they would be heading to the penthouse shortly. "We might as well head on home," he said after putting his mobile away.

Back at the penthouse, the elderly butler greeted the group. "I trust you enjoyed yourselves?" he asked.

"Save for the occasional moment of self reflection," Cassandra smirked.

"We hit both parts of the Air and Space museum," Tam added, with a wry smile.

"Indeed," Alfred replied. "As someone old enough to easily recall a fateful afternoon in July of nineteen sixty nine, I can attest that the hope inspired that day does live. We just occasionally forget about it when more trivial things occupy our existence."

"He's too cool," Milagro stated.

"And I am continually reminded that your wisdom is still the best," Cassandra smiled, kissing Alfred's cheek.

"Alfred, are…they're back," Bruce said, as he entered the penthouse. "Had fun?" he asked.

"A ball," Iris replied.

"It was educational," Damian added.

"It kicked ass, Kid. Shut up," Jason dismissed.

"That's why he's the cool one," Jai laughed, pointing to where Jason had briefly excused himself.

"A regular riot," Tim sighed. "League ends all tied up?"

"Yes."

"May I suggest the patio for this evening's dinner?" Alfred added. "It is looking to be a lovely evening out."

"Sold!" Lian and Iris replied together.

"Need a hand?" Chris asked. "Just asking," he said when Alfred gave him a look.

"Appreciated as always Master Chris, but not necessary," Alfred politely stated, before excusing himself to finish up with dinner.

"Where'd everyone go?" Jason asked as he entered the kitchen to wash his hands.

"They have gone out to the patio Master Jason. Dinner will be served there."

Once dinner had been served, Tam asked Alfred how his day had been. "A delight Miss Tamara. I met up with an old acquaintance that happens to be in town at the moment," Alfred replied.

"You have one more full day here," Bruce said a while later. "What are your plans?" He was met with several 'uh' responses before Tam suggested something.

"Shopping!"

"Drop dead," Cassandra, Iris, and Lian all told her. Tam laughed, knowing that that would be the answer she got.

"Are you three diseased?" Milagro gaped at them.

"Nope," Tim replied. "Just serious tomboys."

"Ese, I'm a tomboy…those three are freaks of nature," Milagro corrected. Bruce nearly choked on his sip of wine in laughter.

TBC…


	5. New Orleans

Road Trip – New Orleans

_A/N: The lady the kids meet up with in this chapter is based on a real person. My good mate Lacey was born and raised in New Orleans and loves her hometown like nobody's business!_

It had been over a week since they'd left the nation's capitol and Damian's family. Bruce had conversed with Milagro about the vehicle maintenance and asked that she inform him immediately if anything unusual came up. She'd brushed him off, but almost reconsidered when the teens had stopped in Jacksonville Florida and found a garage where Milagro could give them major tune ups. She and Damian had spent a good portion of their time elbows deep in the engine of the coach.

"Maybe it was that big rig blow out in Georgia?" Milagro suggested when they discovered a small puncture in the radiator. Damian cocked an eyebrow at her suggestion and probed a little further. He found a small piece of shredded tyre rubber imbedded in the radiator.

"Maybe you're right," he agreed, after prying the piece out to inspect it better. "There's a spare…" he trailed off when Milagro held up the spare radiator he was talking about. She fitted it into place and within an hour declared both vehicles in tip top shape again.

"So what's the story with Lacey?" Lian asked when they were on their way to New Orleans a day later. "I mean I know she knows who we are, and that we show up occasionally to help out or whatever. But what's her story with the Titans?"

"She was originally an on-line acquaintance of Bart's," Damian explained.

"Hurricane Katrina hit and Bart was worried sick about her, because she and her father and brother hadn't been able to leave the city," Iris added.

"Tim helped by scouring the emergency relocation sites that had been set up, while the others helped Bart raise money for Lacey and her family if they found her," Jai chimed in.

"It took a week, but Tim eventually found them at a shelter in Larose, and by then, they had raised over five grand," Iris continued.

"Every year since, Titans show up in New Orleans, either to help with rebuilding, or any other fund raiser or charity event Lacey is involved in," Damian concluded.

"Or just to hang out," Jai added.

"Hnn," Lian shrugged. "I always wondered how she got involved with knowing the Titans."

"And it's cool she knows our secret ID's and doesn't spill that," Chris grinned.

"To Lacey, we're just regular people with really oddball jobs," Jai chuckled.

"Regular folks with a healthy appetite for Cajun and Creole cooking," Milagro chimed in.

"Oh God, my mouth is watering already," Chris groaned.

An hour later they had arrived in New Orleans. Iris pulled up to the front of a shotgun style home on stilts in the Gentilly, while Damian pulled the coach up over the curb and parked next to the home. A middle aged black woman stood on the porch and grinned at her guests over clasped hands.

"Six ready and willing stomachs ready to be filled, Ma'am!" Iris crowed as she got out of the land rover.

"How have you been Lacey?" Damian asked, holding out a handkerchief for her.

"Wonderful," Lacey sniffled happily, taking the offered kerchief. "I'm so glad y'all decided to visit on your vacation."

"Kick ass Louisiana cuisine, on the house? Yeah we're gonna pass that up," Jai teased, bending down to hug Lacey.

"Your cousins are here," Lacey told Jai and Iris. "Bart and Jenni are doing some shopping for me, they'll be back in a while," she said. "Now come on in and tell me about where y'all been!"

"I smell food," Lian purred, taking a deep breath.

"Shrimp gumbo, you are too good to us," Milagro added.

"Thank you God for making her," Chris stated towards the ceiling as he hugged Lacey. Lacey laughed and playfully smacked Chris before taking a seat. Lian wandered into the kitchen to get drinks for everyone.

"Hey Lace? This lemonade safe for consumption by minors?" Lian called out.

"The red glass pitcher, Hon," Lacey replied. "And there's some sun tea on the back porch."

"Cool, thanks!" Lian came out a few minutes later with the lemonade and tea. She dashed back into the kitchen to get a tray with glasses and an ice bucket and brought those out to the parlour. "Who? Oh. Bart and Jen are back," she said, after spying them pull up to the house.

"Hey Chris?" Bart called out from in front of the home. Chris showed up at the door and grinned. "Help me with this?"

"Sure thing," Chris replied, pausing to hug Jenni as she went up the front stairs to enter the house.

"We got everything on your list," Jenni said before greeting the teens. "I'll be back in a second," she added, taking off for the kitchen. She returned with two more glasses and another pitcher of lemonade. "The lethal stuff," she said, waggling her eyebrows and pouring a glass for Lacey and herself.

"Who are you cooking for?" Chris asked, when he and Bart came inside. "The whole city?"

"I wish," Lacey laughed. "You guys are just in time for a jazz festival slash fund raiser."

"We're going to be working a concert?" Iris grinned.

"Mmhmm," Lacey nodded. "Ever since Katrina, this neighbourhood has had special food banks in place in the event another storm floods the town."

"I had no idea that's how we got involved with you so much," Lian offered apologetically.

"It still hurts when I think about it, but there's been some good coming out of it," Lacey replied. "Several other wards in the city have similar food banks set up. They raise money to fill them up by holding festivals…because Lord knows, Nawlins loves a party," she chuckled. "Besides, I got to meet all y'all."

"Which reminds me," Damian chuckled. He reached for Iris' purse and took out a cheque. "As per tradition," he added, handing the cheque to Lacey.

Lacey looked at the amount written down and smiled fondly. "I still thank God for y'all every day." She leaned her head on Bart, who was sitting on the arm of her chair. She held the cheque up to show everyone. "That amount seems small, but it helped us get back on our feet without a dime of assistance from FEMA."

"Quick! Change the subject before he gets pissed," Jai exclaimed, indicating Bart.

"I had my annual Katrina related blow up when we got here the other day," Bart assured his cousin.

"How are your Dad and James?" Iris asked.

"They're good. Daddy's slowing down a little, but Jay-Jay's got him taken care of," Lacey replied. "They were here earlier this year."

"Where in Georgia do they live?" Damian asked. Lacey answered and Damian groaned. "We were right by there the other day."

"No one would have been home to greet y'all," Lacey chuckled. "They're visiting my Aunt in Colorado."

"How's Aunt Paula doing?" Bart asked. Lacey cackled. Bart had found Aunt Paula on-line when he was helping Tim track down Lacey and her family immediately after the storm. He kept in regular contact with her ever since.

"You'd never know that woman was eighty three," she said. "She's still working at the church every day."

"So this festival?" Milagro asked. "What are we doing for it?"

"I would like some of y'all helping me in the food tent," Lacey stated. "The boys can help with security. Had a small concert two months ago and all kinds of fights broke out," Lacey sighed.

"Sst," Chris said suddenly, holding his hand up. He scanned outside the house with his x-ray vision until he found the source of the noise he'd heard. He smiled. "Miss Lacey, I do declare, you are about to have a Jazz parade come down the street."

"I hear it now," Damian said.

Bart held his arm for Lacey as the others headed out for the front porch. All along the street people began filing out of their homes to join in with the impromptu parade. On the lawn, Jenni took Jai's outstretched hand and the two cousins began dancing to the music. Lacey laughed and whooped as Bart led her across the lawn as well. Lian and Milagro were easily swept up with dancers in the parade. Chris laughed as he bent down to pick up a young girl who wanted to dance with him. The parade stalled at the end of street and the small crowd mingled and had a grand time of it. Damian and Iris climbed up the levee at the end of the street and sat down to watch the scene after a while.

"Miss Lacey, your kids is down here," the ring leader of the parade called out. "They helping at the festival?"

"They sure are Rene," Lacey replied. "The boys said they'll help with security."

"Good, cause we don't need no fights. Do we Miss Latisha?" Rene directed to the girl Chris now had on his shoulders.

"No we don't," Latisha proclaimed loudly.

"Well we got music to play and people to cheer up," Rene declared. "I'll stop by tomorrow to talk festival with ya, Miss Lacey."

"See you tomorrow Rene," Lacey waved. Bart, Milagro, and Jai continued along with the parade as Rene led them down another street. Chris was about to return a disappointed Latisha to her mother, when her aunt said that she'd look after the girl.

"Thanks Aunty Kenya!" Latisha grinned from atop Chris' shoulders.

"No problem Baby," Kenya smiled up at her niece. "Girl, I could use a break," she directed to Lacey. "They caught me up as I was coming out of work," she laughed.

"I got lemonade, tea, and juice," Lacey said, emphasising juice. Kenya laughed and said she'd take a tall glass of juice, which was code for the spiked lemonade. "Damian? See if there is any blue crab up there," Lacey called out.

"How many do you want?" Damian replied getting to his feet and helping Iris do the same.

"Two dozen, please."

"You're so sacrificing your shirt for this," Iris teased. Damian shrugged and removed his tee.

"Want to help them?" Chris asked Latisha. She nodded enthusiastically and Chris lowered her to the ground so she could race up the side of the levee. The teenagers knew what to look for when it came to crab, but let Latisha give instructions to humour the girl.

"Here you go," Jenni said, handing Kenya a glass of juice. She and Lian had wandered back to the house after the parade left. Lian brought Lacey her glass and sat on the top step of the porch.

"So I hear some of you kids is on vacation," Kenya asked, fanning her face with her hand. Lian pointed to the coach on the side of the house and explained about their trip so far.

"Looks like her royal highness woke up," Jenni commented, having spied Nefertiti in one of the coach windows.

Lian snapped her fingers. "Damian's cat is with us, is it cool if she wanders around outside?" she asked.

"Sure no problem," Lacey said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Lian went to fetch the cat.

"Mrs Kent still wants to keep you," Jenni teased the cat slouched in Lian's arms.

"This is Nefertiti…and yes, she is just as much the queen she was named for," Lian said.

"Oh I love Russian Blues, they are so pretty," Kenya stated as Lacey got up to go inside for a moment.

"Here you go your majesty," Lacey teased, putting a trio of Mardi Gras bead bracelets around the cat's neck. Nefertiti sniffed at them then ignored them, focusing on Lacey instead. "Now she's easier to spot," Lacey laughed.

"Nefer-kitty's ready to party!" Iris laughed, as she returned to the house with Latisha, Chris, and Damian. The cat jumped from Lian's arms to inspect the shirt full of crab Damian was carrying.

"Ah," he gently scolded when she swiped at it with her claws. She glared up at him and reached a tentative paw out to the shirt again. "Where do you want these?" Damian asked Lacey.

"In the freezer," she replied. Chris took Damian's shirt and his own to the large freezer under the home. Nefertiti gave an indignant squawk.

"We'll catch one for you later," Damian assured his pet. She just glared up at him.

"May I pet her? Please?" Latisha asked Damian.

"Of course you may. Just hold your hand out for her to inspect first," Damian replied, crouching down so he was eye level with Latisha. She did as he instructed and Nefertiti sniffed at her hand, before rubbing against it. "That's her way of saying you may pet her," Damian chuckled. He watched for a moment as Latisha lovingly ran her hand along Nefertiti's back.

"She's soft like Gumbo," Latisha told her aunt.

"That's because she's the same breed as Gumbo," Kenya replied.

"You have a Blue?" Damian asked.

"Yeah, but he's old and grumpy," Kenya laughed.

"Young and manipulative," Damian snorted, pointing down at Nefertiti.

Bart, Milagro, and Jai returned to the house an hour later, exhausted but happy. Kenya checked the time and thanked Lacey for her hospitality, before taking Latisha home for the evening. While several of the teens got cleaned up, Jenni helped Lacey in the kitchen. They took dinner out to a long buffet so everyone could serve themselves. After dinner, Lacey slyly suggested some video games to which Bart and Jai immediately accepted. Jenni and Lian had been content to watch for a while, before Lian took off to the coach to grab a pair of controllers. Chris had been reading for a while before falling asleep on the sofa. Damian and Iris retreated to the coach to watch television. Milagro staggered in a while later and barely mumbled her good nights to the pair before heading to bed to crash.

The following morning after breakfast, Lacey told the team about some elderly people in the neighbourhood who might want some help around their homes, when Bart asked about it. Damian and Iris checked in on the elderly widow that lived next door to Lacey. Madam Lafitte gladly accepted their offer. She chatted with Iris, who volunteered to do the housework, while Damian tended to the garden outside.

"Hey Mr White," Jenni greeted an elderly man who lived down the street from Lacey.

"Hello Miss Jenni, you and your cousins visiting with Miss Lacey?" he greeted.

"Yep. We were wondering if you need anything done around here?" Jenni replied.

"That's very kind of you, but my nephew just came 'round here the other day with his wife and took care of it all," Mr White said.

"That's great," Jenni grinned. "If you do need anything, you know where to find us. Bart and I'll be here for a couple of weeks."

"I'll keep that in mind," he replied. "But stop on over anytime and chat with an old man," he added.

"That I will do," Jenni promised.

"Hey Jen?" Jai called out. "Hey Mr White," he added, when he saw the elderly man. "How have you been?"

"Good. You and your family?"

"Great! Irey and I have been on a road trip with some friends. We'll have to come by and tell you about it."

"I look forward to it, Son," Mr White smiled. He waved to Jenni and Jai before heading back inside.

"The Cole sisters have got a couple of odd jobs for us," Jai told his cousin.

"Let's go," Jenni replied. "What's the rush Mila?" she asked, when Milagro jogged by them.

"I need to get the land rover. Doña Carter wants me to go shopping for her," Milagro replied.

"Two trips in one?" Lian suggested when she came out of the house with the keys.

"You got roped into shopping too?" Milagro asked, getting into the passenger side of the land rover.

Bart and Chris were helping a retired Marine build a vegetable garden in his back yard. "You should consider moving down here," the man told Bart.

"I'm seriously considering it once I'm done with school next year," Bart replied. "So's Jenni."

"This town could definitely use more young people like you around."

"You should thank the long suffering soul that raised me, Mr Graham," Bart chuckled.

"Poor Max," Chris laughed.

"This box thing is gonna get me a good crop?" Mr Graham asked, indicating the raised beds, they just finished constructing.

"Hydroponics. Huge yield in a confined space," Chris assured him.

"Trust me," Bart laughed. "We both call farm country home to some degree."

"I've seen the one you built at Lacey's house," Mr Graham stated. "I just don't understand how she gets so much from it."

"It's long and complicated, but it's worked since ancient times," Bart assured him. Bart and Chris took turns explaining how the system worked until Mr Graham grasped the concept.

It was nearly three in the afternoon when they'd all returned to Lacey's house. Rene was over and talking about the festival and discussing what was needed and where. "The food store on Mirabeau needs some serious stocking."

"That's the worst one?" Lacey asked as she checked her notes.

"That and Prentiss," Rene replied.

"How bad are we talking?" Bart asked, reading over Lacey's shoulder.

"They about fifty percent of what we'd need in the event of a storm," Rene sighed. "During the rest of the year, we use the stores as regular food banks for people, so stuff don't spoil. This last winter was bad with the mini recession."

"And it's storm season," Damian murmured, towelling his hair dry. He'd hit the shower immediately after he and Iris returned to Lacey's home. "May I?" he asked Lacey, indicating her notes. She slid them over to him and he read through them thoroughly. He took a seat and furrowed his brow in thought. "Is Jenni about? She is really good with logistics," he added for Rene.

"Give me a sec," Bart said and went off in search of his cousin.

"What's up?" Jenni asked a moment later as she followed Bart into the parlour.

"Grab the laptop, please," Damian instructed. Jenni did so and took a seat next to him. Lacey smirked at the surprised look on Rene's face as Damian and Jenni set about making a proper business plan for the festival.

"Profit from ticket sales go to pay the acts and for the venue," Jenni murmured.

"Business majors?" Rene asked.

"Relatively speaking," Damian replied.

"According to the math, this is what we need to raise to restock all six food banks completely," Jenni said, turning the laptop around to show it to Lacey and Rene. Rene let a small smile curl the corner of his mouth.

"Miss Lacey, would you mind terribly if I borrow your kids here and have them pass out flyers to the tourists down in the French Quarter?"

"When do we leave?" Bart grinned.

"I'll come round y'all up at about seven tonight," Rene replied.

At seven exactly a gaudy van pulled up in front of Lacey's house. Rene was dressed for a Jazz parade, which was a stark contrast from the jeans and tee he'd been wearing a few hours earlier. After ten minutes, he pulled in front of a grand estate in the French Quarter and everyone piled out. "Tante Marie, we have some volunteers' ma chere!" Rene greeted the beautiful woman holding court on the front porch.

"So I see," Marie replied with a wide smile. "Let me take them real quick and have them change," she added.

"Oh hell yeah!" Lian exclaimed when she saw the costume racks Marie directed them to.

"We look like proper gangsters, man," Jai grinned. The boys were wearing white dress shirts with dark pinstripe vests and slacks.

"And they look stunning," Damian stammered, when the girls showed up. They were all wearing harlequin design mini dresses in various colours.

"You're too kind," Iris teased. They went out to the porch where Marie was handing out bundles of flyers to costumed volunteers.

"We normally don't act this crazy unless it's Mardi Gras, but we want to get every tourist we can," she said as she handed the team their flyers. "Just dance along with the parade and hand out flyers to everyone you see."

"Okay everybody," Rene called out to the assembled musicians and volunteers. "Let's put on a show!" He flourished a lighted parasol and the musicians began playing. Marie waved them off as they left towards the crowded tourist areas of the quarter.

"Holy crap," Iris said when they rounded a corner and the streets were packed.

"Game faces people," Milagro commanded. "Hey hola! Wanna come to an authentic Nawlins music festival?" she bellowed out and started handing out flyers to everyone within reach.

"Do what the Mexican does," Chris laughed, before announcing aloud about the festival and handing out flyers to passing tourists.

"Ladies, wanna hit a happening party this weekend?" Jai grinned as he handed out flyers.

"Oh my god, you sleaze ball," Iris chuckled under her breath as Jai worked the crowd. "Hey! Big ol' party this weekend! Come on down!" she called out to the crowd, handing out flyers to eager hands.

Damian went for the smoother approach to Jai's tactic and wooed young women in the crowd with a perfectly feigned local accent. "We're having a little social this weekend, and you are most welcome to attend."

"Good food, good people, and great music!" Lian used as her rallying cry to get people's attention.

"Stop on by, we'd be more than happy to have you!" Jenni hollered as she handed out her flyers.

"Loads of great local bands and the best chefs in town!" Bart said to anyone within earshot.

For an hour, the parade snaked through streets inviting anyone interested to the festival. They hit a cross street that would lead them back to Marie's home and dispersed into the crowds, quickly making their way back to the estate. "I didn't think I'd run out of flyers, but damn!" Lian said as they went to change into their regular clothes.

"That was so fun…my voice is gone," Milagro laughed.

"I'm starving," Jenni groaned.

"Me too," Iris croaked. Like Milagro, her voice was spent.

"Lace said she'd have food waiting for us when we get back," Jai reminded them.

"I hope so," Chris murmured. "I could give those three a run for their money in the chowing down department," he added, indicating the three speedsters.

"Bring it," Bart challenged with a laugh. Damian chuckled along with Bart.

"Hey, y'all did great," Rene told them, as he dashed up to meet them. "Herb will drive y'all back to Miss Lacey's place," he added, indicating a trumpet player from the parade.

"Cool thanks man, we had a blast!" Bart replied, shaking Rene's hand.

"I'll see ya tomorrow. I have some stuff I have to take care of here," Rene told them, before dashing away again.

"Dang, you kids is naturals," Herb said as they piled into the van.

"Kids. We know how to party," Lian chuckled.

"Thank you for the lift back," Damian managed to get out. His voice was raw from all the speaking he'd done.

"You a Yankee?" Herb gaped at Damian. "I thought you was local by the sound of ya."

"Good actor," Damian allowed a small smirk to grace his lips.

"Get that boy an Oscar," Herb chuckled. The others laughed along with him. "Okay y'all. Home sweet home," he said a few minutes later as he pulled up to Lacey's home. "Miss Lacey Rose, these are some good kids ya got here!" he called out to Lacey, who was sitting on the front porch.

"You have no idea," Lacey replied with a wide grin. "Thanks for dropping them off Herb!" Herb waved as he pulled away. The teenagers stayed out front to wave him off for a moment.

"Food!" Bart exclaimed and the mad dash to the kitchen was on.

The next morning, they finished an early breakfast and got to work organising everything that they'd need for the festival the following day. Lacey was on the front porch trying to secure a truck she'd requested earlier and failing. "How big was the truck going to be?" Jenni asked.

"About half as big as the bus," Lacey, replied, indicating the coach.

"We have tons of storage space on that thing," Iris piped up. "Plus we can load up the land rover too," she added. Lacey eyed the coach for a few moments in thought.

"How about we do this," she said, flipping to a blank page in her notebook and drawing a rough sketch on the page. "We use the kitchen and dining area for extra prep space."

"That will work," Damian murmured, glancing at the sketch. "As long as we have the okay to park the coach on the grounds.

"That's not a problem," Lacey said. "We got permission to park a big rig on site. The coach won't be an issue."

"Well that's settled," Iris grinned.

"Okay, new plan," Lacey said. Damian, Chris, and Jai set about clearing the few used storage areas on the underside of the coach out. A truck pulled up to deliver tables, which the boys stowed in the cleared compartments. After two more deliveries, the boys had loaded all the supplies needed in the storage compartments of the coach.

"And we still have room for crap," Lian smirked.

"Tomorrow morning, we're loading the food in there," Lacey grinned, snapping her fingers and pointing to the land rover.

The rest of the day was spent doing what food prep they could. Rene had shown up and wrangled Chris, Damian, and Bart into helping out at the park with the stage. Jai and Lian joined them a while later to help with technical set up. Milagro decided to use the kitchen in the coach to prepare dinner for everyone, so she wouldn't take up valuable space in Lacey's kitchen. Rene and the others returned from setting up just as Milagro finished with dinner.

"This is good," Rene complimented.

"Real Mexican food," Milagro laughed after thanking Rene.

At Lacey's insistence, they retired early that evening. "Long day ahead of us tomorrow," she stated.

It started at roughly five in the morning. Between Chris and the speedsters, they loaded up everything else they needed in ten minutes. Milagro followed the land rover to the park where the festival was being held and parked the coach at one end of a small lot. Damian parked right in front of the coach and they all piled out to get to work. As no one else was about at the early hour, the speedsters set up the canopy and tables in no time flat. Lacey fired up the cooking stoves and started giving directions to her helpers. She oversaw the cooking that Iris, Jenni, and Milagro were tending to. They were eventually joined by other food vendors and Lacey excused herself to manage them as quickly as she could.

Rene joined them a short while later with a police officer in tow. The officer handed out security badges to Lian and the boys, after taking down their names. The officer almost decided to not let Lian work security because of her age, until she politely informed him of her martial arts prowess.

"You'll walk around and keep an eye out for any fights or anything else that's suspicious," the officer instructed. He handed them short wave radios and asked that they hang out by the food tents and look like they're helping out. "I won't need you until the crowds start showing up. When they do, just wander around and mingle."

"Well you heard the man," Jai teased Lacey. "Where do you want us?" Lacey only had them for half an hour before the gates were opened and people started coming in.

"Be careful and try not to kill anybody," Lacey teased, directing the last part to Lian.

"Killjoy," Lian muttered before disappearing into the growing crowd.

"Hey!" Kenya called out to Lacey. "Where do you need us?" She was with her sister Davina and Davina's daughter Latisha.

"We'll rotate out with the girls between cooking and selling," Lacey replied, as they joined her behind the tables.

"Hey Sweetie," Iris greeted Latisha. "You can help me serve, okay?"

"Okay," Latisha grinned. It wasn't long before Latisha was busy handing Iris plates to fill with gumbo, jambalaya, or red beans and rice. Latisha proved very useful, as she would quickly get more supplies and restock them.

"Hey, check out the Mardi Gras cat," a customer in line said, pointing to Nefertiti, who was seated in one of the coach windows. She was still wearing the beads Lacey had placed around her neck. Milagro snorted a laugh when Nefertiti sat up very prim and posed for her adoring audience.

"She's sucking the love up, isn't she?" Jenni giggled.

"That's Nefer-kitty…a regular ham when she wants to be," Iris shrugged.

It had been a few hours since the festival started and Lian was beginning to think that she wouldn't have much to do. There were police visible throughout the park and loads of plain clothed security. Then she heard a pair of raised voices. "Ah blessed stupidity," she smiled and went to find the source.

"Back off and cool it or you'll be escorted out," Lian commanded a pair of frat boys trying to start something with a group of locals.

"What are you gonna do about it, Sweetheart?" one of them demanded, shoving Lian in the shoulder.

"Damn he touched me," she smirked. "You all saw that, right?" she asked the locals trying to avoid the frat boys.

"Yeah and I'm gonn…" he never finished his threat, as Lian grabbed his wrist and flung him bodily over her head. Placing a foot on the winded frat boy's chest, she grabbed her radio.

"This is Lian, I'm over at…the Metairie section with a couple of out of towners who need to leave," she said over the radio. A police officer replied that he'd be there in just a moment with another officer.

"Hey you can't," the second frat boy started.

"Dude…I just threw your Jersey Shore wannabe pal over my head with no effort," Lian warned. "Do you want to know firsthand how miserable he's feeling right now?" The guy just gaped at her. "Good, now shut up and go with the nice officers, as they lead you and your pal out." One of the officers dragged Lian's victim off the ground as the other took hold of the second frat boy and led them away. "Dumb asses," she muttered, before giving a deep bow to the people who were applauding.

Across the park, Jai and Chris chuckled as they listened in on their comms to Lian. Damian rolled his eyes and shook his head, while Bart smothered a laugh. The only other action where the police had to step in was when another of the plain clothed security detail spotted a pick pocket trying to steal from some people.

Back at the food tent Jenni got the giggles when one of the jazz acts from earlier showed up. They insisted on singing for their supper and began playing a fast paced piece that had people dancing along. Lacey folded her arms across her chest and playfully frowned at the musicians before giving up and laughing and asking what they wanted. As thanks, the band leader placed a hundred dollars in the tip jar next to the register.

"Typical," Davina laughed.

"Mariachi bands do the same thing," Milagro told her. "Woo you with music, then tip big when you give them free food."

Lian wandered up a little while later and got a smattering of applause from her friends. "It's the mighty butt kicker!" Kenya teased.

"You guys heard about that?" Lian asked, ducking under one of the tables to join them.

"Damian and Jai were here for lunch earlier and told us all about it," Iris replied with a wink.

"They were being jerks, and one of them did shove me," Lian smiled sweetly. She ducked suddenly when a loud crash of thunder roared overhead. "Whoa that was close."

"Turn all that off," Lacey instructed, pointing to the burners and food warmers. Iris and Kenya switched everything off as the heavens suddenly opened up and it began to pour with rain.

"C'mon chica," Milagro said, taking Latisha's hand and leading her inside the coach.

Back outside, the boys hurried over and ducked under the canopy to avoid the rain. They helped carry food and other things into the coach as another clap of thunder rolled overhead. Lacey grabbed the tip jar while Chris grabbed the cash register. Inside the coach, he took the register into the master suite. Lacey followed and set the jar down on the dresser.

"That came on quick," Jai muttered, taking his shirt off and wringing it out in the kitchen sink.

"It could last five minutes or it could last all day," Lacey stated, peering out the door to make sure they'd brought everything in. Jai grabbed his laptop and pulled up a weather site.

"Uh we might want to consider just packing up," he said. "There's a line of storms rolling in from the Gulf." He flipped the laptop around to show everyone the screen. On officer rapped on the door of the coach a few minutes later to tell them just that.

"Reports say this is gonna last all day folks, you might as well pack up," she informed them.

Several of the teenagers gave Lacey a worried look but she brushed it off. "Concert was almost over anyway and we did real good," she assured them. Damian glanced around and began giving orders.

"Jai get the storage compartments open. Bart, you and I will break down the tables and Chris can stow them," he instructed. The four of them headed back outside and quickly broke everything down and got it stored. Chris said he'd get the canopy in case any lightening hit.

"I can take a few million volts," he smirked. He quickly took the large canopy down and stashed it into the last compartment on the coach. He called out as he closed the compartments that he'd take the land rover back to Lacey's house.

"That's everything, correct?" Damian asked, as Kenya finished securing the last of the food trays. Lacey did a quick mental inventory and replied with a quick nod. Davina was sitting on a sofa with an arm around Latisha's shoulders. Latisha had Nefertiti in her lap and was petting her in an effort to sooth her. Nefertiti was not at all bothered by the sudden storm but let the child pet her anyway, sensing that it was the girl being comforted.

Milagro turned the video comm on and told Chris that they were going to wait for a bit before leaving. "We're kind of stuck here until everybody clears out," she said. It was almost an hour before they could leave. Davina, Kenya, and Latisha had walked to the park, and offered to help out at Lacey's once they got there. Lacey had had an idea while they were waiting to leave and had Milagro take a detour. At a shelter for women and children, several other food vendors from the festival seemed to have had the same idea. The shelter managers gladly accepted the donations from all the vendors. Lacey set just enough aside for dinner once they returned to her house.

By the time they got to Lacey's, Latisha had fallen asleep on the sofa. Damian told Davina that he'd watch her while everyone took stuff inside. Nefertiti had curled up near Latisha's head and was sleeping soundly. When Davina returned to the coach with a plate of food for Damian she was surprised to see that the sofa had been folded out to a bed, and that Damian had rearranged Latisha into a more comfortable position. Damian was reclined on the other sofa and reading a book when Davina came in.

"Thank you Sugah," Davina told Damian.

"Not a problem," he replied. "Granted she isn't quite my size, but I know for a fact, that sleeping lengthwise on that thing is not the most comfortable of positions," he added sheepishly. Davina gingerly climbed onto the sofa so as not to disturb her daughter and chatted with Damian for a while.

Inside, Lacey had a gleam in her eye as she counted out their profits from the day. "That right there can completely restock Mirabeau," she proclaimed. "And that don't include the tips."

"Which were quite hefty," Jenni grinned as she finished counting them out. She handed the tips over to Lacey who divided them up equally.

"Now before you three even think of politely refusing these," Lacey said to Iris, Jenni, and Milagro. "Think of it as money to use for your cheesy souvenir gag," she finished, giving them a wink.

"Damn," Lian laughed. "She's got our number."

"Sold!" Milagro stated, holding out her hand. "Muchas gracias!"

"Their cheesy souvenir gag," Jenni corrected. "Although, I wouldn't mind getting one of those masks for my room back home," she added, accepting her share of the tips and thanking Lacey.

"There's an idea!" Iris grinned. "We could get one of those and put it in the bathroom, so you see the reflection of it in the mirror!"

"We'll need to find a creepy one," Lian enthused.

"I heard that," Chris called out from the parlour.

"Whatever, you're in on the gag already," Lian hollered back.

"Say what?" Kenya asked in complete bewilderment. The girls took turns telling her about the running gag they had going.

"So at each stop, one of us finds the cheesiest tackiest souvenir we can find, and smuggle it aboard the coach without Damian noticing," Iris explained.

"That's what all that crap is in there?" Kenya laughed, pointing towards the side of the house the coach was parked next to.

"Exactly," Lian nodded. "Although he's pretty much resigned to the fact that we're going to do it regardless."

"He just sighs dramatically when each new one shows up," Milagro snorted.

The evening wore on and the weather refused to let up. Kenya, Davina, and Latisha ended up staying the night. The following morning it was clear and sunny out. The teenagers went into the heart of downtown to look around and see the sights. Lian found the perfect mask to add to their collection and gave her co-conspirators a wink. Back at Lacey's a few them went to visit with neighbours and Jai showed Mr White the pictures from their trip, as he had promised.

On their final morning in town, the team packed up the coach with their things before having breakfast. Bart and Jenni stood on either side of Lacey as the teenagers hit the road again. Bart had a comforting arm around Lacey's shoulders and Jenni held one of her hands. Lacey smiled and sniffled at the same time as the land rover and coach turned the corner and disappeared.

"Next stop, El Paso Tex-ass," Lian droned.

"Next stop is San Antonio, chica, unless you want to do a marathon drive," Milagro pointed out.

"Say wha?"

"It's over a thousand miles between New Orleans and El Paso," Milagro replied.

"Dude…seriously?" Lian gaped.

"Yup," Jai chirped, showing Lian the map he'd pulled up on-line. "One thousand and ninety four miles to be precise."

"We're marathon driving…fuck that," Lian decided. Several of the others laughed at her distress.

"What's wrong with Texas? It is my home state y'know," Milagro said.

"El Paso's practically in Mexico," Lian snorted.

"I'll give you that one," Milagro conceded.

"Wait, isn't the Alamo in San Antonio?" Chris piped up.

"Si," Milagro smirked.

"Cool! San Antonio here we come!" Chris cried. Lian groaned and resigned herself to the fact that it would be two days before they reached Milagro's hometown.

TBC…


	6. Celebrations in El Paso

Road Trip – Celebration in El Paso

_A/N: No…I don't absolutely adore Milagro's family to pieces. Why do you say that? And no, I don't think Jaime Reyes and Traci 13 are the most well adjusted and perfectly suited for each other couple, either. The version of Traci that I'm most familiar with is the one that appeared regularly in Jaime's original run of Blue Beetle. The one Paco describes as "Impossibly hot Asian chick with a British accent." _

Alberto Reyes looked up when he saw the sleek black land rover pull into the lot of his auto shop. His eyebrows rose a bit at the coach that followed. The land rover came to a halt and Milagro jumped from the driver's side and raced towards her father. "Mi hija!" Alberto cried out as Milagro latched onto him. He let his cane fall to the ground as he hugged his daughter tightly to him. The shop manager stooped down to pick up the discarded cane before greeting Milagro.

"Hey Squirt." Paco Tejas greeted Milagro.

"Paco!" Milagro grinned. Alberto accepted his cane from Paco before Milagro launched herself at her brother's oldest friend.

"Buenos días y bienvenidos a El Paso," Alberto greeted the rest of the team as they gathered round. Several of Milagro's teammates replied with 'gracias'. "Do you want me to have those looked over for you?" Alberto asked, indicating the coach and land rover with a nod. "On the house no less."

"They got the once over in Jacksonville, Papi. Gracias though," Milagro replied.

"Your offer is appreciated Señor Reyes, but Milagro has been checking and maintaining them for us the entire trip," Damian added.

"Ah good," Alberto smiled. "Any problems mi hija?"

Milagro shook her head no. "Just a timing belt adjustment on the bus and that's it. Oh! We did have to replace the radiator, after it got hit by tyre scraps, but that was nothing. We found a garage that let me give them a major tune up in Jacksonville." Alberto nodded as Milagro narrowed her eyes at him. "You can poke and prod them at the house," she scolded, waving her hand at him. "We're still parking in the back, sí?"

"Si mi hija, the Salazar's left for Corpus Christi two days ago, so there's plenty of room back there," Alberto replied.

"Cool! Is anybody home?" Milagro asked as an afterthought.

"Jaime and Traci should be. They got back two weeks ago when school got out," Alberto replied. "They were out until God knows when last night, so they should have just woken up a little while ago."

"Okay then," Milagro said. "We'll see you at the house…yes Paco, you can come and poke and prod too," she teased.

"Damn straight, Chica," Paco smirked.

A chorus of 'bye' and 'see you later' echoed throughout the auto shop as the Titans piled into the land rover and coach. Alberto watched with an expert eye as Milagro easily navigated the large coach out of the lot and back onto the road. "We're taking off early today, aren't we?" Paco asked.

"Yep," Alberto nodded. "Miguel?" he called out. One of the shop's oldest employees came out to see what his boss wanted, as Alberto told him that he would be in charge for the next few days.

Milagro turned off the street into a field behind a row of homes and Damian followed behind in the land rover. They drove a bit until coming up to the sixth house along the row, before Milagro pulled closer to the fence line and parked the coach. Damian parked next to the coach at Milagro's instruction and everyone got out. The sliding patio door opened as they went through the gate and Milagro grinned. "Hola Traci!" she called out.

"Hello Sweetie, hey guys," Traci 13 greeted. "Berto just called and said you were on your way," she added as she hugged Milagro.

A flash caught Milagro's eye and she stepped back. "What is this?" she asked, grabbing Traci's hand and holding it up to better show off the sapphire and diamond ring adorning it. Milagro recognised the ring as the one her maternal grandfather had proposed to her grandmother with.

"Your brother caved and asked if I'd marry him, last night," Traci smirked.

"We're going to be sisters!" Milagro squealed, grabbing Traci in a bear hug.

"Damn, did you score or what?" Lian asked, as she congratulated Traci. Milagro shot Lian a look. "What? Your brother is drop dead gorgeous…sweet, almost to a fault."

"A hopeless romantic," Traci added. "And a bunch of other things that are too long to list."

"That I really don't need to know about," Milagro groaned. "Papi doesn't know does he?" she asked suddenly.

"Nope. Nor does your Mum," Traci grinned. "And you guys are officially sworn to secrecy…Jaime and I have a bet going. How long until your Mum spots the ring."

"Eight minutes," Milagro piped up.

"Got twenty bucks to pony up?" Traci asked. Milagro stepped back to reach into her pocket. The others began whipping twenty dollar bills out as well.

"I'm definitely getting in on this action," Iris grinned. Jai had his handheld computer out.

"Okay, so eight minutes," Jai murmured.

"Four and seven have been called already," Traci informed him.

"What did the Mama's boy pick?" Milagro asked.

"He reckons seven minutes for the ball to drop."

"We've met your mom, Mila," Iris snorted. "And she doesn't miss a damn trick."

"Two minutes," Lian called.

"Three," Iris shot back. The bets were placed and dutifully record by Jai. Traci was about to lead them into the house when Jaime called out from inside.

"Traci? Who was on the phone?" Milagro raced inside in search of her brother.

"Your Dad, telling me that company was…"

"Oof!" Jaime grunted as he caught Milagro in a hug.

"…coming," Traci finished with a giggle. "Hullo Sweetheart," she greeted Nefertiti as the cat rubbed against her ankles. Traci bent down to pick her up and cuddled her. "You've been having fun on the road too eh?"

"She's enjoyed herself in some spots more than we have, I think," Damian teased, reaching out to give his cat a scratch.

"I'll bet," Traci laughed as she turned and headed for the house.

"Mr and Mrs Reyes won't mind if she goes inside?" Damian asked.

"They let Leroy run around the place, so I doubt it," Traci shrugged. "And she has better manners than he does." Nefertiti spotted Traci's iguana familiar as soon as Traci carried her inside. Leroy blinked up and flicked his tongue towards her before settling back down on the piece of driftwood he was perched on. The two animals had encountered each other enough that they had an easy truce going between them.

"Dude, normally I'd say something stupid like; what were you thinking?" Jai grinned at Jaime.

"But in this case, damn! Congratulations man!" Chris finished.

"Congratulations indeed to you both," Damian added.

"Gracias," Jaime smiled.

"They've been sworn to silence and are in on the bet," Traci stated. "Milagro spotted the ring in like five seconds flat."

"That's gonna be a sweet payday when I win," Jaime smirked, giving Traci a look.

"Dream on Sweetie," Traci retorted.

"And that's why I think that it's about time you two made it official," Iris teased.

"Tell me about it," Milagro groaned and rolled her eyes. "They've practically been married since they met."

"Someone's coming," Chris said, indicating the front door. The door opened to allow Alberto and Paco in a moment later.

"Traci, Jaime, how was your date last night?" Alberto asked.

"Great," Jaime grinned.

"Fantastic," Traci added.

"Muy bueno," Alberto smiled happily as he continued on through the house towards the backdoor. Paco greeted Jaime and the two shared a fist bump as Paco followed Alberto.

"¿Qué?" Jaime gaped.

"We stopped off at the shop on the way here," Milagro stated.

"Ooh."

"Across the lawn…and out the back gate," Traci commented as she watched the pair through the kitchen window.

"Someone should probably unlock them for those two," Chris chuckled and held a hand up to catch both sets of keys.

"I'll come with," Jai offered, taking the keys to the coach from Chris.

"And now Mom's home," Jaime commented as the scarab on his back alerted him.

"From the moment she walks in the door?" Damian asked, getting the stop watch on his watch ready. Traci nodded. Damian started the timer the moment Bianca Reyes opened the door.

"Berto and Paco came home for lunch kind of late…ay dios mio! You're here already!" Bianca exclaimed as she rushed to hug her daughter.

"Hola Mami!" Milagro cried out as she hugged her mother.

"Oh mi hija, I've missed you!" Bianca told her daughter. "How have you all been?" she asked, giving Iris, Damian, and Lian hugs as well.

"Great," Lian replied.

"We've been having a blast!" Iris grinned.

"Thank you for allowing us to stay here for a few days," Damian added. Bianca made a dismissive noise and waved her hand in the air.

"You should know by now, you're always welcome here," she gently scolded. Jaime glanced at Damian and shook his head. Damian replied by rolling his eyes once Bianca's back was turned. "Where are the other two?" Bianca asked.

"Showing Papi and Paco our rides," Milagro replied. "We stopped off at the garage on the way here."

"Uhg," Bianca groaned. She quickly changed moods and asked about where all they had been so far.

"…and then Chris' abuella fell in love with the cat," Milagro was explaining few minutes later.

"Your cat is with you?" Bianca asked. Damian nodded to Traci, who was still holding Nefertiti.

"Oh she's so prett…what is that?" Bianca asked, pointing to Traci's hand.

"Time?" Traci grinned.

"Seven minutes and sixteen seconds," Damian replied, stopping the timer on his watch.

"Bloody hell!" Traci cursed.

"Ha! Told ya!" Jaime cheered.

"Mama's boy," Milagro muttered darkly.

"Shut up brat," Jaime shot right back.

"Knock it off," Bianca scolded her children. "What is that?" she asked Traci again.

"Abuella's ring," Jaime smirked.

"Jaime and I decided we may as well make the married thing official," Traci shrugged.

Bianca's eyes grew wide and watery as Traci's words sunk in. "You're getting married?" Traci nodded. "You proposed?" she asked her son.

"Si. And lucky for me, she said yes," Jaime grinned.

"What did your father say?" Bianca sniffled happily.

"Not a bleeding thing," Traci laughed.

"Papi came in, said hi, and went right on through to go check out their rides," Jaime stated.

"He did what?" Bianca huffed, jamming her fists on her hips. Jaime repeated his statement, all the while smirking as he said it. "Berto has no idea?"

"Nope. But Milagro spotted the ring in like five seconds," Traci offered. Bianca clicked her tongue and pointed towards the back of the house.

"They're out there, si?"

"Si."

Bianca casually strolled to the patio door and called out to her husband. "Berto mi cariño?"

"Ouch," Milagro winced.

"Busted," Jaime added.

"He's toast," Traci chuckled.

"That tone's universal," Iris giggled. "Regardless of the ethnic background it seems."

Outside, Alberto looked up when his wife called out to him and frowned. "What?" Bianca curled her finger at him and he sighed, heading for the house.

"Yo…dead man walking," Paco said.

"She spotted the ring?" Jai asked.

"Yup. Jaime won the bet," Chris replied. Paco slowly turned his head to face the two boys.

"What ring and what bet?"

"There was a bet going to see how long before Mrs Reyes noticed the engagement ring Jaime gave Traci last night," Jai grinned.

"The ff…what?" Paco stammered. "Jaime proposed to Traci?" Chris and Jai nodded.

"By the way?" Chris asked, as Paco opened and closed his mouth in shock at the pair of them. "What does cariño mean?"

"Uh…it means 'sweetheart', or 'my heart'," Paco stammered. "Mi amigo asked his woman to marry him and he didn't tell me?" Paco demanded, changing the subject.

"I dunno about that part," Jai admitted.

Inside Alberto shot Bianca a look that she returned. "Did you know that our son is engaged to be married?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

"¿Qué?" Alberto gaped. He looked at Jaime and then to Traci, who held her hand up to show off the ring. "Mi hijo?"

Jaime shrugged. "I figured since everyone and their cousin…literally," he said, shooting Iris a look. She just laughed as he continued. "Says that we've been practically married since we first met, that I'd make it official," Jaime finished. "And hey! She said yes!" he added jokingly.

"Yeah, because the odds of me coming across another cute Mexican boy who can put up with my craziness are slim to none. So I figured what the hell," Traci added.

"You're both getting married?" Alberto murmured, his eyes watering.

"To each other no less," Traci teased, pointing between her and Jaime.

"Ah crap, he's gone," Milagro snorted. She shrank back a little and watched her father. When he said nothing about her language, she grinned. "He's really gone!"

"Do you need to sit down?" Bianca asked, taking his arm to support him. Alberto mimed holding a baby in his free arm and began babbling about how it seemed that only yesterday, Jaime was just a newborn. "I know, now he's all grown up," Bianca sniffled. Traci nearly bit through her lip to keep from laughing when the pair of them started reminiscing in Spanish.

"Sad part…that's gonna be ten times worse when it's her turn," Jaime sighed, jerking a thumb towards Milagro.

Milagro groaned in agreement. "Hey chill," Lian assured her. "It'll involve a lot of sharp pointy weapons and threats of homicide in my case."

"Jaime, why didn't you tell me you were going to ask Traci to marry you?" Paco demanded suddenly as he barged through the patio door.

"Ese, if I even suggested that I was thinking about it, you'd have blown the surprise. So shut up," Jaime retorted.

"Yeah…but, um. Dude, hold on," Paco stammered as he grabbed his mobile which had just gone off. "Hey Brenda? Get over to casa Reyes…now!" he answered. "No seriously…now!"

"Hey cool! A preview of when Dad loses his shit, when Damian proposes to Irey," Jai chuckled, as he and Chris ambled inside behind Paco. "Ow, ooh!" Jai clasped the back of his head with both hands where Bianca had smacked him.

"Thank you Mrs Reyes," Iris grinned.

"Dork," Lian muttered under her breath.

"I believe I've pointed out before that a certain alien weapon of mass destruction is totally scared of her," Jaime smirked, jerking his thumb towards his back to indicate the scarab.

"My ring is nowhere near as sentient as the scarab and it knows not to mess with Mama," Milagro added.

"Engagement announcements in my family were never this animated," Damian murmured, shaking his head,

"No offense Sweetie," Traci smiled sweetly. "But your family isn't exactly known for its emotional outbursts."

"This is true."

The front door opened just then to admit a petite redhead with freckles. "Okay Paco. What's up? Hey!" Brenda Del Vecchio exclaimed when she saw Milagro. "I didn't think you guys would get here until later!"

"We left San Antonio early this morning," Milagro grinned, hugging Brenda.

Brenda was about to say something until she glanced around the room. "Why does it look like a scene out of a bad novella in here?" Traci flashed her engagement ring and Brenda's jaw dropped. "No way! Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded of Jaime.

"'Cause you'd have blown the surprise faster than Paco would have," Jaime replied. Brenda narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing.

"I've got an idea," Traci piped up suddenly. "Why don't we all buggar off to Juárez for a bit?"

"Yeah," Brenda agreed, taking in Alberto and Bianca, who were still in their own little world. "They look like they need a moment."

"They need more than a damn moment," Jaime muttered under his breath.

"We driving?" Chris asked

"Hell no, we're walking," Brenda shot back.

"How far is Mexico from here?" Lian asked.

"Three and a half blocks that way," Jaime replied, as he, Brenda, Paco, Traci, and Milagro all pointed south.

"You just need your ID's to get back across the border," Milagro added.

"Who needs theirs?" Iris asked. Chris indicated that he needed his.

"Grab my purse," Lian replied, as Iris sped outside.

Traci wandered over to the counter where her purse was. "We're going to Juárez for a bit," she informed Bianca and Alberto.

"Okay," Bianca replied. "You all have your ID's?"

"Yes Mrs R. Anything you want us to pick up while we're there?" Traci replied. Bianca was about to reply but then snapped her mouth shut.

"I can't think of anything at the moment…gracias though," Bianca replied a moment later.

"We'll bring back dinner, how's that" Jaime suggested as Traci joined him and took his hand.

"Okay," Bianca nodded.

"Okay bye!" Milagro called, out holding the door. "Andale before they come to their senses," she muttered to her friends. She needn't have worried as another wave of nostalgia washed over the pair.

"Just a tiny baby," Bianca sniffled.

"His hands were so small," Alberto added. Bianca leaned on her husband and the two started babbling again.

On the street outside Jaime rubbed his brow. "It's gonna sink in, in about another half hour and then the real fun starts," he muttered. Traci giggled.

Milagro mimed speaking into a telephone. "Hola Mami? Guess what Jaime did?" she mimicked in a fair impression of their mother. Traci had to stop for a moment because she was howling in laughter as brother and sister shuddered.

"That bad?" Jai asked.

"Bianca's a little April shower compared to the force of nature that gave birth to her," Traci cackled.

"That's possible?" Damian asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sadly, yes it is," Brenda chuckled.

"You're not worried?" Iris asked Traci.

"Nah. Elena adores me," Traci grinned. A picture of Jaime's grandmother popped into her mind and she paused.

"¿Qué?" Jaime asked, when he noticed that she'd stopped.

"You're Catholic," Traci murmured, as the mental image of Elena Leal focused on the large crucifix she wore proudly.

"Si and you aren't," he smirked.

"Have fun with that, Chica," Paco teased, patting Traci on the back.

"It's too late to elope, isn't it?" Traci muttered, taking Jaime's hand as they started walking again.

"Oh hell yeah it is!" Milagro grinned. "You're stuck now, Sister," she added and then smiled wider. "We're gonna be sisters!" she cheered, clapping her hands and hopping in place for a moment.

They rounded a corner and Iris boggled. "Let me guess where Mexico is," she said, staring at the large sign at the border crossing.

"Jesus, you guys were barely born in the States," Lian commented.

"Really barely," Milagro laughed. "The hospital we were born at is only one block from the border."

They joined the flow of people walking across the bridge over the Rio Grande and into Mexico. Jai stopped just on the other side of the line indicating the border and grinned. "Bienvenidos a Mexico! Where's the nearest bar?"

"You're not legal, stupid," Chris snorted.

"Two feet that way I'm not, but from here and points south…bring on the tequila!" Jai crowed. Chris glanced at Jaime who was nodding his head.

"Everyone but Lian and Milagro are legal down here," he stated. "It's eighteen and older."

"And Milagro and Lian could get away with a drink or two as most of the bars in town are pretty lax about checking ID's," Paco added.

"Trust them, they're experts," Brenda sighed.

"Don't drag me into this," Jaime scolded. "Responsible senior team member here." He smirked when Lian and Iris barked disbelieving laughs at him. "Best place is a few blocks that way," he added a moment later pointing down the main road.

"Which we will hit up on the way back," Traci stated.

"I love you," Jai grinned, taking hold of Jaime's arm and leaning his head on his shoulder. Traci playfully swatted Jai on the back of the head.

"Hands off my cute Mexicano," she teased.

"You're not going to say anything?" Chris asked, glancing at Damian.

"There's nothing I can say," Damian shrugged. "As they said, we are of legal age of consent here…mostly."

"Hey I have an idea for dinner," Milagro piped up, pointing to a local grocers. "Why don't we have a barbeque?"

"That'll work," Brenda murmured in agreement. "Oh! They got mangoes in!" She added when she saw the stand outside.

"We'll stop at Rosita's on the way home then," Jaime said.

They walked another block until coming to the main shopping district of Juárez. "We forgot to exchange…" Chris muttered, before Traci cut him off.

"No worries, everything is listed in two currencies. They'll take either one here."

They wandered around and stopped at several shops. In one, Paco and the owner were talking cars. "Hey Jaime," he called out. Jaime wandered over and Paco asked if he thought that his father would cut a deal with the shop owner.

"Oh hell yeah. Papi would make a deal," Jaime assured the owner.

"I'll come and get it Monday, okay?" Paco informed the owner. He added that the family currently had company and that he and Alberto were taking a few days off.

"Hey gracias," the owner grinned. "The local shops want way too much for fixing my baby."

"Papi won't mind cutting a deal, Señor," Jaime assured him.

In another shop, Iris and Lian watched in amazement as the elderly shop keeper bartered back and forth with Traci and Brenda over a pair of small hand woven rugs. "It's like watching a ping pong death match," Lian muttered, as the shop keeper scoffed at the girls' counter offer.

"Those two are pros," Milagro assured her friends. "They're gonna go back and forth a bit more before hitting Señora with the math." Sure enough, Brenda whipped out a calculator as she and Traci began suggesting numbers. They came up with a fair estimate for the rugs and Brenda held the calculator up to show the old woman, adding that she and Traci were being generous with their original offers. The old woman narrowed her eyes at the pair for a moment before stating one of their earlier offers as one she would accept. Brenda and Traci shared a look before agreeing to the price.

"She's not letting you two back," Lian stated, listening to the old woman complain as they left.

"Nah," Traci assured her. "We bug her every other week."

"She knows who my aunt is and knows that I have money," Brenda added. "She was just trying to scam some extra cash."

"That's all a show…trust me," Milagro added. "That old lady is making bank off these two right now, because they're getting stuff for their homes."

"Barter and trade in action," Iris mused. "Oh my God, I thought he was kidding," Iris added, when she saw where they were going next.

"Paco and Jaime never kid about getting their drink on," Brenda laughed.

Inside the pub, Paco was at the bar talking to the barkeep and handing over a large bill to get a bottle of specialty tequila. A young waitress went to the table Jaime had grabbed and set down a tray with enough glasses for everyone. Paco flourished the bottle which Jai snagged for a moment to get his picture taken with. Iris laughed.

"I can see it now. Daddy; that's my boy! Mom; You die!" Iris' imitation of her parents caused the others to laugh.

"I thought you said your Mum was swearing off the crazy Asian mother stereotype," Traci asked, as Paco took the bottle back and emptied it into the glasses equally.

"She says that," Iris admitted.

"But it's a struggle," Jai snorted. "Her mother…scary."

"Oh God," Iris cringed.

"Okay, a toast," Paco proposed, holding up his glass. "To Traci and Jaime…"

"It's about damn time!" several of the Titans and Brenda finished. They all laughed before throwing back their shots in single gulps.

"Jesus," Jai wheezed, slamming his glass down.

"That is smooth," Damian added, his eyes watering slightly. Chris nodded his agreement as he blinked rapidly a few times.

"That burns," Iris said, having recovered quickly due to her powers.

"You're all a bunch of wimps," Milagro teased her teammates.

"Amateurs," Lian teased. Iris and the boys turned to look at Lian and Milagro, who were both seventeen and stared at them. Lian shrugged. "What? You've met my family," she added.

Milagro was pointing to her brother and smirking. "Ain't no way he's going to try and tell me 'no', considering the crap he got up to with Paco."

Jaime shrugged. "She covered for me a few times," he guiltily admitted. Traci leaned her chin on her hand and looked at him in amusement.

"Yeah. It's pretty sad when you go out for your eighteenth birthday here, and your seventeen year old boyfriend and his mates can drink you under the table already…and I'm no lightweight," she teased.

"It's tequila, Chica," Paco stated as Jaime laughed. "The life force of the Mexicano people!"

"So I noticed," Traci drawled. "As you three shrugged shots of the stuff off like nothing." Brenda glanced away and whistled innocently as Paco and Jaime beamed with pride.

"Dude, she was trashed," Milagro laughed as she recalled the event.

"If they were drinking that, I can imagine," Jai said, pointing to the empty bottle. He perked up as an idea came to him. "Hey, you paid for the bottle right? Think they'd mind if we took the empty with us?" Jai asked Paco. Paco shook his head no and handed the bottle to Jai. "There's your souvenir from Mexico," he laughed.

"A souvenir from Mexico," Milagro smirked, as Iris tucked the bottle away into her bag. Damian looked towards the ceiling and sighed.

"Right, shall we?" Traci asked, handing a large tip to the waitress. They left and headed for the grocers they saw earlier.

"Tia Brenda! Tia Traci!" a small girl squealed in delight when they entered the grocers.

"Hullo Alina," Traci grinned, bending down to pick her up. "Oof, big girl."

"That she is," Brenda added, leaning in to give Alina a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey hola," a heavily tattooed blonde greeted.

"Hola Bonita," Milagro grinned, hugging the woman. "Hola Probe," she added, hugging an equally tattooed woman with sunglasses and dark hair.

"Your trip brings you to the border-plex?" Probe asked, as she greeted the others.

"We've been all over," Lian replied.

"Hey, I have an idea," Jaime piped up. "Why don't you bring the rest of the Posse to our house? We're having a barbeque tonight," he invited.

"We can tell you all about our trip so far," Milagro added.

Bonita and Probe shared a look and shrugged. "Sure, gracias." Bonita thanked. Probe passed her unseeing gaze over the group and smirked.

"I'll be back in a second," Probe stated, excusing herself and heading for the bakery at the back of the grocers.

"We'll hit the butcher's and you guys get everything else," Paco suggested. He and Jaime wandered off to the butcher counter.

"Usual drill?" Bonita asked with a laugh, as Traci set Alina back down. Alina took her mother's hand when Bonita held it out for her.

"Usual drill," Brenda nodded. "I'll take Irey and Lian," she added.

"Dibs on the boys," Traci stated.

"Milagro is with me then," Bonita said.

They split up and quickly canvassed the grocers for everything they needed for the barbeque. Probe rejoined them at the registers with a claim ticket that she quickly paid for. "We'll take all this with us," Brenda stated, once they left the store. Bonita agreed with a nod and said that the Posse would be over in an hour or so. She, Probe, and Alina watched them walk back to the border crossing for a moment before heading home.

"We should get some flowers for doña Reyes," Probe suggested. Bonita immediately became suspicious.

"¿Por qué?" Bonita asked.

"To go with the cake I just ordered, which we need to pick up on the way over to casa Reyes," Probe replied. Bonita shot her a look and Probe smirked. "Jaime and Traci are engaged," she added. "I'm surprised you didn't pick it up."

Bonita's jaw dropped. "That's what the vibe I was getting from them was?" Probe nodded as they walked. "Ay…Dios…mio!" Bonita laughed. "Let's go get Piñata and the boys."

An hour later, the Posse arrived at the Reyes' home. "Felicidades doña Reyes! We got these for you," Bonita greeted, when Bianca opened the door.

"Muchas gracias," Bianca sniffled, as she accepted the flowers. "Ay, you got a cake too?" she gasped when she saw it.

"Doña Lupe always has a spare, just in case," Probe chuckled, referring to the head baker at the grocers.

"Uh…on the counter por favor, Scour," Bianca directed, when he asked where she wanted the cake.

"Felicidades," Damper added, leaning to kiss both of Bianca's cheeks. Alina leaned out from her father's hold and hugged Bianca as well.

"Gracias," Bianca replied, taking Alina from Damper's arms. "Come in, come in," she laughed, stepping aside to allow them entrance.

"Okay, let's see it," Bonita demanded when she stepped out the patio door. Traci laughed and held out her hand to show off her ring.

"That's an antique, si?" Piñata asked, looking at the ring.

"It's his grandmother's ring," Traci replied.

"Felicidades Señor Reyes," Stump offered as he hefted a cooler off his shoulder. Alberto thanked him from where he was manning the grill. "Oh damn! Check these bad boys out!" Stump called to his friends.

"Damn, you guys are slumming it," Piñata teased, when she spied the coach and land rover parked on the other side of the fence.

"Hey, we were thinking of going camping tomorrow," Damper stated. "You guys wanna come?"

"We'd like that, thank you," Damian replied, after the others all said that it sounded like fun.

"Hola pretty kitty," Alina greeted Nefertiti, when the cat flopped down at her feet. Damian raised a curious eyebrow at his cat; as Alina bent down to give her belly rubs.

"Wow. Nefer-kitty really likes her," Iris remarked.

"Indeed," Damian agreed. "I've never seen her do that with a stranger before."

"Alina is a natural born magic user," Traci supplied. "Nefertiti can probably sense it."

"She can," Alina piped up, as she continued to pet the cat.

"Yo," Stump called out, holding a football. "Who wants some?"

"Bring it," Chris smirked, cracking his knuckles.

"Milagro," Bonita whispered as the boys began filing out the back gate to the empty field. Milagro followed Bonita back into the house and laughed when she pulled a sombrero from a bag the Posse had brought with them.

"Hey Lian, Irey…check this out," she laughed, coming back outside with her prize. "I asked Bonita to grab one for us at Rosita's."

Lian cackled as Iris glanced to see where Damian was. "Totally distracted. C'mon," she said, waving for the others to join her in the coach. Bianca, Brenda, Traci, and the female members of the Posse gladly accepted the invitation to check out the inside of the coach.

Milagro tapped her fingers on the brim of the black sombrero with gold embroidery as they figured out where to put it. "Right there," Iris smirked, indicating the window behind one of the sofas.

"Oh yeah, Damian will love that," Lian laughed.

"We're so violating his personal space," Milagro snorted, as she hung the sombrero in the window. She explained that the sofa was where Damian slept. "It folds out into a bed at night."

In the field, Chris picked up the conversation from inside the coach and glanced over with his x-ray vision. He clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing when he spied the sombrero. Damper finished deciding where the boundaries were for the game and teams were called out. "Posse versus the Titans," he smirked.

"Don't even go easy on 'em," Jaime told his teammates, as they lined up on the ball.

Scour played a few rounds before declaring that he was done. He wandered over to the back yard and thanked Probe when she handed him a beer. The other girls had joined in by then and Traci offered to take over for Scour. Jaime gave her a predatory smirk that she returned. Chris called 'hike', and found Jai to be the most open one on his team. Jai caught the ball and easily dodged Stump and Damper before running it in for a touchdown.

"Damn, that kid would skunk la migra if he ever had to," Stump laughed.

"Migra?" Jai boggled at the unfamiliar word.

"Immigration and customs," Jaime explained.

"Oh," Jai nodded. "Actually, she's the one that could skunk ICE," he added, jerking his head towards his sister.

"Oh yeah?" Bonita asked. Chris smirked.

"Hey Irey…go real long!" he said before launching the ball to the far side of the vast field. Iris folded her arms across her chest and watched the ball arc through the sky before suddenly bolting off to catch it and bring it back.

The Posse all glanced at each other before Piñata piped up. "Chica, if you ever want to make some side cash? Look us up."

"For real, yo," Damper chuckled.

They lined up again and Traci eventually got the ball. Jaime blocked her forward momentum and was about to tackle her, when Traci tossed the ball off to Paco. Paco grabbed it and bowled Damian over as he ran in for a touchdown. "This is American football, not rugby," Jaime scoffed at Traci.

"They have laterals in Yank footy," Traci reminded him. She yelped when he grabbed her and hoisted her over his shoulder. She was about to retaliate when Bianca called out that dinner was ready. Traci smirked and flexed her fingers.

"Ay, don't do that," Jaime hollered and set her down quickly. Traci had scratched at his back over where the scarab lay. "Dude, stop purring," he muttered.

"Huh?" Chris gaped. Milagro laughed.

"Traci discovered…totally by accident, that Kahji likes back scratches," she replied. "I mean he really likes them!"

"Traci the mighty scarab tamer," Paco laughed.

"Don't even, woman," Jaime yelped and jumped back as Traci mimed scratching his back. "Stop purring," he muttered again, and reached back to smack the spot on his back where the scarab was.

"A simple back scratch reduces the scarab to a purring kitten, apparently," Damian commented dryly.

"Thankfully it doesn't work in battle, or I'd be screwed," Jaime said, shooting a withering look over his shoulder.

"Who's a good little scarab," Traci murmured, scratching Jaime's back again.

"Would you stop?" Jaime barked. He shuddered suddenly causing the others to laugh. "How many times have I got to tell you that she's my woman…not yours?"

"Oh my God!" Lian howled. "That is freaking hilarious."

"You're the third wheel, aren't you?" Iris asked Traci between laughing fits.

"And it's so much fun," Traci smirked.

"Jaime," Alberto asked when he saw the look of discomfort on his son's face. Jaime shot Traci a look as he indicated his back. Alberto laughed, figuring out what had happened.

They sat outside in the warm evening and the Titans talked about their trip so far. Lian pointed to Milagro when they were going on about the Aztec display at the Smithsonian and Damian shook his head. Milagro hadn't been kidding when she said that the discussions at the Reyes home about their ancestors was far worse than anything joked about at the museum. Paco and Jaime immediately pantomimed an imaginary monologue of an Aztec priest.

"Oh don't sweat it, Ese…the screaming was just some dude who just won the lottery," Paco piped up.

"The blood? It's chicken blood…we're having enchiladas for lunch," Jaime added. "Yeah that's it, enchiladas."

"Now you said your back don't feel good? Lay down here, this'll only take a minute," Paco mimicked what might have happened next.

"Not raining yet? Next!" Jaime called out.

"Oh my God…where were you two when we were at the Smithsonian?" Lian howled in laughter.

"You have to admit," Damper laughed. "Somebody who committed that much murder in the name of religion had to have had a sense of humour."

Bianca came out a little while later with the cake to the complete surprise of Jaime and Traci. Bonita said that Probe had gotten it and the couple thanked her profusely. Jai was taking photos as Jaime and Traci cut the cake together. He happened to spot his sister leaning against Damian and couldn't help it. Jai snapped a picture of the pair of them. Damian shook his head in disapproval as Iris used her middle finger to scratch at a spot between her eyes. The evening eventually wound down, with the Posse getting ready to head home.

"Hey, tomorrow we'll meet out by the old settler's church and head out from there," Stump was telling Paco.

"Sounds like a plan," Paco grinned, as he and the others waved the Posse goodnight.

The following morning, Paco and Brenda arrived at the house with their camping gear. Chris took it and tossed it into the coach. Damian and Traci had gone food shopping and returned shortly afterwards, loading their haul into the coach. "You sure you don't want to come?" Milagro asked her parents as they headed out the back door to see the youths off.

"No, you go and have fun," Bianca replied.

"She's gonna catch up with her Mama," Jaime teased as he walked by. The scarab warned him and he dodged the swat Bianca aimed for his head. Traci dashed past just then as she went in search of her familiar.

"C'mon Leroy! Nice yummy tarantulas!" she called out.

Outside, Chris poked his head out from where he was stashing gear in the coach and stared at the house. He saw Traci come back out with Leroy draped across her shoulders and asked her to repeat what she had said. She gave him a puzzled look. "Nice yummy what?" Chris repeated.

"Tarantulas," Traci replied. "Also known as Leroy treats."

"Oh hell no!" Chris balked.

"This is the desert Ese, they're all over the place," Milagro shrugged.

"I don't do spiders…let alone freaking tarantulas," Chris stated.

"Dude…you're Kryptonian, it's not like a spider can hurt you," Jai muttered.

"You're an arachnophobe?" Damian asked in surprise.

"A little," Chris admitted.

Jai put his hands together and glanced skywards. "Thank you."

"Use of that information will result in death," Chris threatened, glaring at Jai with glowing red eyes.

"Somehow I don't think that'll stop him," Iris admitted. Jai grinned and then back flipped out of the way of the warning shot Chris aimed at his feet.

"Ya missed," Lian muttered, clicking her tongue.

"Don't think I'm joking," Chris threatened darkly.

"I'm not suicidal," Jai promised that he would not use Chris' fear against him. "Even as a prank." Chris watched as Jai went into the coach. He startled a bit when Traci placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Alina and I cast spells around where ever, so nobody can stumble upon us," she said. "I'll cast one that keeps the creepy crawlies at bay too, okay?"

"Thank you," Chris sighed in relief.

"C'mon dudes, let's go!" Paco hollered from his car. Traci followed Chris into the coach and they set off. They drove along the river for a ways, until coming upon a secluded turn off. Jaime and Milagro had been riding with Paco, and the siblings powered up once Paco stopped.

"What the?" Jai asked inside the land rover.

"We're crossing here," Brenda told him from the passenger seat.

"Um…okay," Chris muttered. "Because…why?"

"The federales at the border would stop us in a heartbeat in these things," Brenda replied. "A bunch of kids driving tricked out shit like this? Yeah they'd immediately suspect illegal activity."

"So you're sparing us unwarranted searches then?" Damian asked.

"Yup."

"Thank you," he smirked.

"All clear Hermanita!" Blue Beetle called out above them. He'd been scanning for signs of anyone who might see them.

"One bridge coming up," Green Lantern grinned and pointed her fist at the river.

A large green bridge materialised across the water and she gave the okay to drive across. They drove across and continued to follow Paco as he led them to where they were going to meet the Posse. In the rear view mirror they could see a small dust storm kick up where they had just crossed the river. Green Lantern made a large fan to kick up the dust and erase their tracks. She then flew ahead with her brother to the old settler's church ruins. At the ruins, they stopped and waited.

"They're about five minutes out," Jaime said as he landed and the Blue Beetle armour retracted from his body.

"I see them," his sister said, before landing next to him and letting her costume dissolve away. A few minutes later, a low rider and pickup truck, towing a large caravan came into view.

"How long were you waiting?" Damper called out from the pickup.

"Couple minutes," Paco replied.

"Cool…we had a hell of time getting out of Juárez," Damper groaned. "Anyway, we're heading to the tributary, cool?"

"See you there!"

They drove for another half hour through the Chihuahuan Desert until they came upon a small cove in the hills. A tributary of the Rio Grande ran through the area, creating a small oasis in the sand. Damper called out to Chris to park parallel with the caravan, leaving roughly a ten foot gap. Chris did so and Damper gave him a thumbs up. Traci went over to the low rider and picked Alina up from the car. Probe hopped out behind the girl and the three wandered off a ways to set up the magical protections Traci had mentioned, while the others set up camp.

"Okay, first we need to find the ley lines," Traci told Alina. "How many can you feel?"

Alina closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. "Four!" She glanced back at Probe, who gave her an encouraging smile.

"That's right, Mija, there's four of them. Now where are they?" Probe asked.

Alina grinned and held her hands out towards the ground. Her eyes lit up an eerie blue colour as she made the lines appear in the sand. She wandered into the dead centre of where the lines intersected and turned back to Traci. "I found the spot!" she called out.

"Yes you did, Sweetie," Traci smiled as she joined Alina. Kneeling behind her so that they were of equal height, Traci held her hands out next to Alina's. "Now we make the big spells!"

"They're using the spells from Harry Potter?" Chris asked when he overheard Traci and Alina casting the various spells that would ensure their privacy.

"It's not so much the words, as the intent," Bonita replied. "Alina just happens to know the spells from the movies so she uses those."

"That and Traci suspects that JK is a magi herself," Milagro smirked.

"Hnn," Chris muttered. He smiled a moment later when he heard Traci casting an incantation that would indeed keep his idea of uninvited guests away.

Alina raced over to her parents when they were done and leapt into Damper's outstretched arms. "We made the big spells! Really big!" she grinned.

"We're covered to about half a mile in all directions," Traci explained, as she and Probe returned to camp. The sounds of cats squabbling interrupted them suddenly.

"Gomez, Nefer-kitty, no!" Alina gently scolded. She wriggled free of her father's arms and went over to the two agitated cats. "Gomez," she scolded a small male tortoise shell. "She's a magic cat like you. You have to be friends." The two cats relaxed a little as the girl petted them.

"Did she just suggest that Nefertiti is a familiar?" Damian asked Traci. Traci didn't really hear him as she focused on the two cats. Alina was still chatting to the two cats soothing them further.

"I never bothered to check, because Damian isn't a magi…but um, she is a familiar," Traci stated after a moment. "She's not a regular cat."

"She didn't like that he was so alone," Alina added. Damian and several others gave Alina a curious look. "She knew you needed her more than anyone else did," she informed Damian. Damian stooped down to pick up Nefertiti and held her to his chest. He murmured into her fur in Egyptian, causing her to purr in delight.

"See Gomez? Just like you," Alina told her cat. Gomez blinked up at her and meowed softly.

"His name's Gomez?" Jai asked.

"Because his eyes are kind of buggy," Alina replied.

"Oh my God, he does look like Gomez Addams!" Lian laughed.

"Is that why Nefer-kitty seems unusually smart?" Iris asked, petting the cat. Traci nodded. "Aw you're a good girl," Iris cooed. Nefertiti wriggled around a bit to lick the tip of Damian's nose. "And you give him kisses too…right after you've been licking your butt." Damian chuckled as he playfully shoved Iris away. Alina chattered away to both cats for a while longer before assuring everyone that they'd remain amicable for the duration of the camp out.

A while later, several of the Posse and Titans were swimming or playing in the water. Milagro looked over to where she'd last seen her brother and rolled her eyes. He was sitting on the river bank with Traci seated in front of him and the two seemed to be having a moment. Milagro glanced at the water behind her and then to the couple a few times before making her decision. The scarab warned Jaime just in time to look up and get blasted by the stream of water his sister shot at him from a green water cannon.

"I'd say; get a room, but," Milagro drawled, waving the water cannon around to indicate their surroundings.

"Well I say, get drenched," Traci retorted, her eyes glowing a soft purple. Milagro had just enough time to shield herself from the mini tsunami that Traci had conjured up.

"As tempting as the idea is, Kahji. We're not nuking the ring or my sister," Jaime informed the scarab. "I am gonna kick her butt the old fashioned way though," he smirked and raced to tackle Milagro into the river. For all their combat training, Jaime relied on the one tactic that had served him well for years. Milagro screamed and took off to get away from his tickling fingers.

"You can intervene if they go full power, right?" Piñata asked Chris.

"Uh…maybe…depends," he chuckled.

"Remind me why I'm glad I'm an only child?" Lian smirked as Milagro landed next to her.

"Shut up," Milagro shot back.

They played in the river until sunset, when several of the Titans and Posse started cooking dinner. Alina was sitting in Lian's lap, having her hair braided and playing with Nefertiti and Gomez. Milagro glanced up at the sky and grinned. It was a moonless night, so the stars were particularly bright. "Hey Damian? Remember South Dakota? The sky?" she asked. He glanced at her and she pointed up. Damian's jaw dropped at the sight above them. Iris, Jai, and Chris all followed Damian and let their jaws drop at the sheer number of stars they could see in the sky.

"You can't even see that many in Kansas," Chris murmured.

Lian glanced up and contemplated the sight for a moment. "That's about what it looks like at the reservation too," she murmured. "All done," she told Alina as she tied off the braid.

Alina leaned back and gave Lian a backwards hug. "Gracias," she chirped.

"You buzzing?" Damper asked his comrades. He got numerous nods and muttered replies of yes. "She's gonna be fun to get to go to bed tonight," he chuckled, indicating his daughter.

"Witching night?" Brenda asked.

"Oh yeah," Piñata replied.

Leroy was returning to the camp after having slithered off earlier to find his own meal. He hissed at Traci as he plodded past her towards the campfire. "Don't hiss at me because you had to go walkies for your din-dins," Traci scolded.

"Oh dude yo! Can you finishing eating before coming back here!" Scour told the iguana, as he cringed a little in his chair.

"Hnn? Holy…" Chris gaped when he saw the large spider leg dangling from Leroy's mouth. Leroy blinked at the two and reached out with his tongue to grab the stray leg. Scour and Chris both cringed at the crunching noises the leg made as Leroy chewed it up.

"Look!" Alina cried out suddenly. "A shooting star!"

"That's a big one too," Jaime muttered as they watched it streak across the sky.

Milagro snapped her fingers and pointed to her brother. "That reminds me!" She raced into the coach and went to find the halved piece of meteorite that Mrs Kent had given her. "Alina, between our birthdays, there's a big meteor shower. Lots of shooting stars," she told the girl as she came back out. "Most of them are tiny, but occasionally really special ones fall." She showed Alina her piece of the meteorite. Alina carefully inspected the piece.

"Where'd you get that?" Jaime asked as his sister came over to him.

"Chris' abuella has a ton of it, and she let Lian and me have some. I got my piece halved so we could each have a piece," she grinned, handing him the other half of the meteorite.

"Gracias…holy shit, seriously?" he laughed. "That's our birthstone!" Milagro nodded.

"Feliz cumpleaños…early," she told him and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"How far apart are your birthdays?" Iris asked.

"Four days," Jaime replied. "She's the tenth of August, and I'm the fourteenth."

"And smack in the middle is the Perseid meteor shower," Milagro added.

"That's pretty good timing for non-twins," Jai commented. "You're six years apart, right?"

"Si," Jaime replied. "She was early though. Milagro wasn't supposed to show up until the end of September. But Mom developed some serious complications and…ta-da. She's been gate crashing my fun ever since," he waved a hand towards his sister. Milagro smacked him on the back of the head as the others laughed.

"That's how our parents came up with my name," Milagro added. "It's the Spanish word for miracle." She glared at Paco, who snorted and bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud. "Kiss my ass pendejo!"

Paco shook his head and tried in vain to deflect Brenda's elbow as she shoved it into his ribcage. He finally caved. "Where's your chariot?" he managed between clenched teeth.

Damian and Chris shared baffled looks as everyone around them erupted in laughter. Alina, not knowing what was so funny, petted the two cats. "Si, son muy loco," she told them.

"Okay, you three are cool," Milagro huffed, indicating Alina, Chris, and Damian. "The rest of you pendejos can kiss my ass!"

TBC…

_A/N: pt 2. The joke at the end is a reference to an all time classic movie…from Mel Brooks…about history…and a horse named Miracle._


	7. Arizona Pow Wow

Road Trip – Arizona Pow Wow

_A/N: And last but definitely not least on the family side, Lian meets up with her dad on the reservation._

It was still early in the morning in El Paso when Alberto, Bianca, Jaime, and Traci went outside to see off the Titans. "How much driving do you have today?" Alberto asked, as he hugged his daughter. Milagro was leaning on her father and smiling sadly.

"It's not even three hundred miles," Lian replied. "We'll be there by mid afternoon." She looked around when she heard a buzzing sound. Jaime and Traci both looked at their mobiles and checked the messages.

"Someone wanna explain why this is like the millionth text we've gotten saying congratulations?" Jaime chuckled, holding up his mobile to show off the text from Cassie Sandsmark.

"I might have remotely swapped out the computer's wallpaper at the Tower…again," Jai smirked.

"To what, dare I ask," Traci laughed. She'd seen the Yellow Butte picture. Jai whipped out his mobile and showed them a picture he'd taken of her and Jaime cutting their engagement cake. "They've made it official…finally!" Traci giggled as she read the caption Jai had put in the photo.

"Aw, how cute!" Bianca gushed. "May I have a copy of that?" she asked Jai.

"Sure," he replied. He fiddled with his mobile for a couple of seconds as he sent it to Milagro, Jaime, and Traci's email addresses. "All three of them have it in their inboxes…so no excuses."

"Gracias mi hijo," she replied, hugging Jai. Bianca sniffled as she went to hug the other Titans. She stepped up to her husband and daughter and wrapped her arms around the pair of them. "Be good and stay safe," she murmured, kissing Milagro's hair.

"We will," Milagro replied. She wriggled free of her parents arms and went to hug her brother and Traci. "I'm so happy for you two," she murmured.

"Thank you Sweetheart," Traci replied, kissing her cheek.

"You know the drill…any problems and give us a shout out. We'll be there," Jaime told his sister, hugging her tightly.

"I know. We better get going," she added with a small sigh.

"You'll be home soon enough," Jaime assured his sister.

"And your Abuela will be here when you get back," Bianca added. Milagro shared a look with her brother and started laughing. Traci sighed and hung her head a little.

"Have fun with that," Milagro grinned.

"We'll manage," Jaime smirked, placing an arm around Traci's shoulders. "Now go on, andale!"

Milagro gave him a small salute off of her brow and turned to get into the coach. Damian leaned on the steering wheel to allow Milagro to lean out the window and give a final wave to her family. "I love you! See you soon!" she called out. She sniffled and Chris gave her a hug and kissed her temple as they began to drive away.

"Did that boy just kiss my daughter?" Bianca growled.

"Ay Mami, a friendly kiss…nothing more. Trust me, I'd know," Jaime scolded his mother. Bianca glared at him for a moment, before the family turned to return to the house. "When does Abuela get here?" Jaime asked.

"Her plane lands this evening at five," Bianca smiled broadly.

"That was quick," Traci commented.

"She can move when she wants to," Jaime muttered. Traci suggested getting some liquid courage, to which he wholeheartedly agreed. "We'll need it when those two start making wedding plans." Bianca swatted the pair of them.

On the way out of town Lian convinced the team to go to with her to buy school supplies for the children on the reservation. "It's the one thing they can never get enough of," she said as they loaded the land rover with their haul.

Ten minutes after leaving El Paso, the Titans crossed into New Mexico. "Wow, ass end of Texas," Jai commented as the 'Welcome to New Mexico' sign blurred past the window. Milagro smacked him on the head and he growled. "What the hell is it with you and your Mom and smacking people upside the head?"

"Gets the point across," Milagro retorted.

"Smack him a little harder next time," Iris suggested from the shotgun seat of the land rover.

"She might rattle his pea brain a bit too much," Lian smirked.

"One for each of you," Jai scoffed, flashing both middle fingers at the video screen.

"Is today 'Abuse Jai Day'?" Chris grinned hopefully.

"Apparently so," Damian chuckled.

"Every day is 'Abuse Jai Day'," Iris replied. "Believe me; I've been celebrating it since before we even popped out!"

"You are all gonna get yours," Jai warned. "And you'll never see it coming. Just keep that in mind." Nefertiti leapt up onto the dashboard and attacked Jai's feet. He pulled them back and glared at the cat as she curled up where his feet had just been. "Furry, pint sized, little, punk," Jai muttered.

"Good girl," Damian cooed to his cat. She glanced over at him and meowed loudly.

"I'm hiding your treats, hairball," Jai muttered.

"We're off to a good start," Chris chuckled, before heading back to the kitchen to look for something to eat. "Jeeze, and I thought Smallville was out in the middle of nowhere," he commented a while later. "There's nothing out here."

"And it's going to be like this until we hit Cali," Milagro replied.

"Personally, I like it like this," Lian smiled. "The coasts are way too damn crowded for my tastes."

"How much time did you spend out here?" Jai asked.

"Dad and I lived out here for a couple of years. I kind of grew used to it," Lian replied. "To the point that I prefer wide open spaces to cities now."

"When you first…?" Iris asked, trying to think of a way to broach the subject of Lian's death and reanimation.

"Yup. Both of us struggled a bit with me suddenly being alive again. So Dad resorted to his tried and true method of coping," Lian said. "Head to the reservation and let shit work itself out."

"Not to be rude," Milagro asked. "But what did happen?" Lian shrugged.

"I honestly don't know. There's a gap…in my memory," she explained. "I remember feeling the concussion force and seeing and hearing the explosion that killed me. The immediate next memory after that is waking up and seeing Dad looking worse for wear and a few years older."

"Did you ever find out how you were resurrected?" Damian asked.

"Nope. And if Dad knows, he hasn't told me," Lian replied. "I just know that before everything I was a little older than you guys and now I'm the one of the youngest," she added.

"Wait?" Milagro said.

"You were older?" Chris asked.

"Yup. If nothing had happened and I hadn't been killed, I would have just celebrated my twentieth birthday in April," Lian replied.

"Does it bother you to think about this stuff?" Jai asked.

"Nope. It did when I first came back…Dad too," Lian said. "That's why he ultimately decided to just say 'fuck it' and we moved to the reservation for a couple of years," she added. "The simplicity of life there helped us both out. I mean we were both changed by everything, but it helped us get on with our lives. Dad and I eventually accepted that yeah, I'm no longer going to be Miss Sunshine and the fates really took pity on him and gave him a second chance." Lian paused and nibbled at the inside of her cheek for a moment. "It benefitted him more, because he really cleaned his shit up while were there."

"Did you just refer to yourself as Miss Sunshine? You?" Chris chuckled.

"At one time I could give Irey a run for her money in the perky department," Lian smirked. "Thankfully I've been cured of that." Damian, who was taking a sip of water, coughed and sputtered.

"Kindly wait until I am not driving, to bump me off," Damian playfully scolded once he recovered.

Near the border with Arizona, they pulled off into a small town to refuel. "Another two hours of driving and we should be there," Lian grinned once they hit the highway again. In Arizona they came upon another small town and Lian led them to a small two lane road that would take them to the reservation.

"Is that it up ahead," Chris asked, squinting to better see what he thought were buildings.

"We've been on the reservation for a while now, but yeah that's the main settlement," Lian replied. "And there's Dad and Aunt Carrie," she added. They pulled to a stop and piled out of the land rover and coach.

"Welcome to our home," Carrie Smiling Water greeted them warmly.

"Smiling Water, I bring a message from the Lakota," Lian smiled.

"Oh?"

"Hi!" she grinned.

"Hi back!" Carrie laughed. "Where did you run into the Lakota?"

Lian gave her father a look as she replied. "Crazy Horse."

"When you get done with your trip, get back here and we're dragging him up there…kicking and screaming if we have to," Carrie told her as she also shot Roy a look.

"You got it, Boss," Lian replied, giving a half salute.

"I'll go willingly, Jesus," Roy snorted at the pair of them. "God you're a pain in the ass," he added, reaching out and grabbing Lian in a fierce hug.

"That's me. Chip off the ol' Cheshire," Lian teased. Roy groaned.

"She's got you there Uncle Roy," Iris giggled.

"Tell me about it," he scoffed, hugging the twins and then the rest of the Titans in greeting.

"We brought you something," Lian told Carrie. Carrie followed Lian to the back of the land rover and gave a sigh of relief when she saw the mass of school supplies the Titans had picked up in El Paso.

"My headache's gone," Carrie said as she looked over the supplies. "Thank you, all of you," she told the teenagers.

"It was all Lian's idea," Chris admitted.

"You went along with it and that's good enough for me," Carrie grinned.

"Where do you want us to put them?" Lian asked. Carrie glanced around for a moment before nodding towards the community hall. "Mila?"

"Got it," Milagro replied and pointed her ring at the land rover. She lifted the entire load out and flew it over to the community hall. Inside she spied a small reading nook and placed the supplies there.

"That was quick," Carrie remarked. She turned back to the rest of the Titans and gestured at the coach. "I have hook ups and everything for that at my house," she informed them.

Damian went to the coach and waved a hand inside. "After you," he said.

"I like him," Carrie grinned as she got on the coach.

Roy snorted a laugh as he followed her inside, where he spotted the tequila bottle from Juárez and cocked an eyebrow. "Whooping it up in Mexico, huh?"

"Yeah and they got an idea of just how hardcore Aunt Dinah's eggnog is if I could chug that like nothing," Lian snorted.

"You were in Mexico too?" Carrie asked.

"They just drove in from El Paso," Roy supplied.

"Oh! That would explain it," she mused. Carrie directed Damian to her house and where to park the coach. Lian parked the land rover behind the house and ambled over to help Chris hook everything up. "Uh power…let me find the cord."

"Power is not an issue," Damian smirked. "We've been testing a miniature solar array on our trip," he added.

"One of your Dad's innovations?" Roy asked, eyeing the top of the coach.

Damian nodded. "And despite several attempts at draining it, we haven't been able to."

"You couldn't video game it to death?" Roy asked Jai.

"Not for lack of trying…several times," Jai replied.

"There was a full on party in this thing a few times and nothing," Chris chuckled.

"I saw the tequila bottle, I can imagine," Roy retorted.

"Not quite," Damian informed him. "Although the camping trip…" he muttered.

"It was a witching night that night, Ese. The only way Traci and the Posse were crashing was with a little help," Milagro chuckled.

"Witching night?" Carrie asked.

"We went camping with a bunch of magic users the other night," Lian explained. "They were all buzzing from the vibes."

"That reminds me," Roy smirked, placing an arm around Milagro's shoulders. "I hear congratulations are in order." Milagro grinned. "I didn't think your brother would have the cajones to propose until he was done with dental school."

"You and me both," Milagro laughed.

"Why don't you finish setting up whatever you need to do and then we'll show you around?" Carrie suggested. Damian went back into the coach for a moment as the others watched the coach expand out in places. "High tech," Carrie murmured, when Damian returned.

"It has served us well," he supplied. Damian turned back to the coach when he heard Nefertiti's bell as she bounded from the coach to sniff around her new surroundings. "You're not even going to wait this time?" Damian teased her.

"You might want to keep her in at night," Carrie informed him as she bent down to pet the cat. "There's been a coyote wandering around here and taking small animals…cats included."

"Thank you. I appreciate the warning," Damian told her as he watched his cat. Nefertiti gave him a look and meowed before jumping up to his shoulders.

"She's not a normal cat," Carrie murmured as she reached up to give her a scratch behind the ear.

"So we recently learned," Damian smiled, as they began to tour the village.

Carrie and Roy took turns explaining the history of the reservation as they walked through the village. Lian would supply information as well; as the teenagers were introduced to any of the locals they came across. "This is our pride and joy," Carrie proclaimed as they came to a large aviary on the edge of the village. "Federal laws make acquiring some kinds of feathers rather difficult," she explained. "But here, we can take care of wounded or sick birds and any feathers they shed are ours to use."

"What about feathers you just find out in the wild?" Iris asked.

"Eh," Carrie replied, shaking her hand. "That can be an iffy proposition."

"Whoa they're big!" Jai exclaimed when Carrie led them through to where the birds roosted. Damian set Nefertiti down outside the caged area of the aviary. She crept over to a sheltered corner and peeked out from behind a wall at the large eagles inside the massive cage.

"They can be," Carrie laughed. She wandered over to a large eagle perched on a branch. "This poor boy has been with us for a while. He'll live his entire life here," she murmured as she gently petted the bird's head.

"Why? What happened?" Chris asked.

"Poacher shot his wing off," Roy spat. "We get a lot of poachers out here unfortunately."

"You have to admit Daddy, the dudes that did this to Cloud were fun to round up," Lian smirked, as she let the eagle inspect her hand for a moment before petting him.

Roy's smirk matched his daughter's as he recalled the time. "That was a blast." He held his bionic arm out for the eagle to climb on. "Those bastards won't be getting out of jail anytime soon, will they bud?" The eagle leaned forward a bit and stared at Chris with an intense gaze. Roy, Carrie, and Lian all noticed and looked between the eagle and Chris. Chris instinctively reached out and gently brushed his hand against the lone wing.

"Cloud knows you're a flyer like him," Carrie told Chris.

"While accepting being a one armed bandit like me," Roy chuckled. Cloud had gently clawed at Roy's bionic arm and nuzzled the spot where it was attached.

Milagro let out a small yelp and stood stock still as another eagle combed through her hair with its beak from its perch. "You're the other flyer," Carrie chuckled.

"Si," Milagro muttered, terrified to move. Carrie went over to her and carefully shooed the eagle a bit so Milagro could move away from it.

"I don't think they'll hurt kindred spirits," Carrie assured her as Milagro looked back to the eagle that had just been inspecting her.

"What's that one's name?" Damian asked.

"We don't name the ones we can return to the wild," Carrie replied. "Cloud's the only full time resident, so he got a name."

"That makes sense," Iris said.

"Cloud acts like an ambassador for the tribe," Roy stated as he held his arm out for Cloud to return to his perch. "He assures the other birds that we mean them no harm."

"Hey Carrie? Where'd the cat come from?" a man asked as he wandered up to the cage.

"She's mine," Damian replied. "Her name's Nefertiti."

"It's okay Nefertiti," the man cooed down to her. "I won't let the birds eat you."

"Take a good look at her, David," Carrie suggested with a knowing smile.

David stooped down so he could get a good look at Nefertiti. She blinked up at him and meowed softly. "She's a magic cat," he chuckled. "You're very lucky that she picked you," he added to Damian. Damian acknowledged David's assessment as he stepped out of the cage to where Nefertiti was. She jumped up to his shoulders again and began to thoroughly inspect David from the safety of her new perch. "You guys are heading back to California right?" David asked.

"Yeah, after we leave here," Lian replied.

"I can give you a vet cert for her, so you can get her through the Ag department check point," he told Damian.

"That's right," he winced. "Thank you, I would definitely appreciate that." He'd forgotten that they would need a veterinarian's certificate for Nefertiti to get her back into California.

"Let me guess?" David smirked. "She goes directly to Titan's Island with you?" Damian nodded. "You'll legally enter the state this time," he chuckled, petting the cat. "You'll have to forgive me, but I'm gonna have to kick you guys out for a while," David informed them. "We have a rescue coming in and the less people, the less stress for the bird."

"Poachers?" Roy asked as he exited the cage. David shrugged.

"I don't know, I haven't assessed it yet," he replied.

"Call my place if it was," Carrie stated as she left the cage last. "We're heading back there and I can sic these guys on anyone who may be lurking around looking for their prize."

"I was hoping you'd say that," David grinned.

Back at Carrie's home, Lian opened the door and was greeted by Carrie's son, Dane. "You brought the supplies that I saw at the community hall?" he asked as he hugged her in greeting.

"Wiped out the back to school aisle of a Paper Depot in El Paso this morning," Lian replied. She turned and introduced her teammates to Dane. "He's the elementary school teacher here."

"Thanks. We have a lot of kids that'll be happy to see those," Dane offered to the Titans.

"It was our pleasure," Iris replied with a smile. "Lian told us how hard it is to get anything out here." Dane sighed and sagged dramatically.

"There's an understatement," he said. "It's like they forget that we do have school age kids out here."

The phone rang suddenly and Carrie answered it. "Hi David." Milagro powered up and the other Titans suddenly became alert. "Okay, I'll tell them…thanks," she replied before hanging up. "Relax, the bird is only sick," she chuckled. "So you can stand down."

Roy glanced at the time and shook his head. "It's only three in the afternoon," he stated. "Go get your hiking boots on. And any of you that carry sharp pointy things regularly; you might want to get those too." The teens took off to the coach to change their shoes.

"I think Dad's going to go drag us through the canyon," Lian said, as she checked her crossbow. "So I'd go with shorter blades better suited for throwing, if I were you two," she directed to Damian and Jai.

"Why would you need to bring along weapons?" Chris asked as he tied his boots up.

"Dad's probably gonna have us catch dinner," Lian shrugged.

"There's food out there?" Iris asked.

"Loads of it, if you know where to look," Lian smirked. A truck pulled in front of Carrie's house and Lian grinned. It was a police vehicle but she knew the officer. "Carrie's eldest Evan just pulled up. He's the local sheriff…kinda sorta."

"Kinda sorta?" Jai asked.

"Evan's also the local wildlife ranger," Lian explained. She opened the door to the coach and leapt into Evan's outstretched arms.

"Little Living Ghost!" Evan laughed as he caught Lian.

"Future Chief Smiling Water," Lian laughed back as Evan set her down. Lian turned and introduced the Titans to Evan.

"Welcome to our humble home," Evan smiled. He noticed that they were all wearing hiking boots and turned towards the house. "Hey Roy? Where you taking them out to?"

"Canyon," Roy replied, placing his bow on his back. Dane followed Roy outside and was adjusting the wrist brace on his bow arm.

"Keep an eye out," Evan warned. "One of the townie deputies spotted a coyote and thinks it's rabid. It was heading for the hills," he added, pointing away to the north.

"Will do," Carrie said as she stepped from the house. She had a hunting knife strapped to her hip.

"We'll be back around sunset," Roy added and Evan nodded. Evan watched them head south for the canyon, before getting back into his truck and leaving.

Damian stopped and turned when he heard a tinkling bell. Nefertiti was racing after them and he chuckled. "Coming with us are you?" he asked. She slowed before leaping up to his shoulder. "She comes with us when we go hiking or paintballing," he explained to Carrie, Dane, and Roy.

Roy laughed. "Dick's convinced that you deliberately bring her to flush him out."

"Jason takes advantage of that, not me," Damian smirked. "And it is Richard's own fault that she seeks him out. He essentially trained her to hunt him by playing hide and seek with her when she was a kitten."

"Dumb ass," Roy chuckled.

"Aren't you worried about her getting hit?" Dane asked.

Damian shook his head. "Because of her colouring, she vanishes in the woods. She's virtually impossible to spot unless she's right next to you."

"The only place we had no trouble spotting her was in Chihuahua, in the desert," Iris stated. "That grey coat of hers is like the perfect camouflage."

They made it to the mouth of the canyon and Dane took point. Lian scrambled up a rock face to take a higher path along with Milagro and Damian. Roy had Jai and Chris follow him up the opposite side of the canyon a little further in and suggested to Iris to follow Dane and Carrie. "That way if you need to cut loose Irey, you're on relatively flat ground." She grinned up at him as they walked along. The path Lian, Milagro, and Damian were on flattened out for a ways and Nefertiti jumped to the ground and wandered ahead of them a bit.

"Dad," Lian whispered loud enough for Roy to hear a little further in. She pointed to the cat that'd frozen on the spot and stared at something ahead.

On the canyon floor, Dane, Carrie, and Iris looked up towards Lian. Roy gave a small salute off his brow that he had gotten the message and crept forward a few paces. Roy froze when he spotted what Nefertiti had. A couple of large jackrabbits rooting around on the canyon floor. Roy gave a bird call to attract Dane's attention and signalled what was ahead. Dane nodded and notched an arrow as Roy did the same above. Dane moved until he could see the rabbits and took aim. Roy did the same above, indicating which one he was aiming for. Two arrows flew and the rabbits fell in an instant.

"She does know that she's a cat right? Not a hunting dog?" Roy teased Damian.

"Sometimes I wonder," Damian retorted.

"Okay, where are the rest of the bunny rabbits?" Carrie asked up towards Nefertiti, once she had lashed the two dead rabbits together and slung them over her shoulder.

"Nefertiti," Damian called out to her. She turned to look at him and he said something in Arabic. She meowed at him and he repeated the command. She slinked forward again, doing as she had been asked.

"What did you just tell her?" Roy asked.

"Hunt," Damian replied. "As I said, sometimes I wonder about her," he chuckled.

"You have her trained to follow commands?" Dane marvelled.

"Only when it's something that she enjoys," Damian replied.

Dane and Roy spotted the next jackrabbit about the same time Nefertiti did. Dane took the shot as Roy couldn't get to a better spot without possibly giving themselves away. Lian shrugged and slung her crossbow over her shoulder and just followed along when Damian commanded his cat to search for more. It started to become a competition between Dane and Roy to see if they could spot prey before Nefertiti. Sensing this, she scurried ahead of them a ways and began looking again.

"That cat's a punk," Roy muttered when she raced ahead of them on the opposite side of the canyon.

"Dude, I've been calling her that the whole trip," Jai snorted.

"Only because you're her primary victim," Chris chuckled. He heard a soft scratching sound near his shoulder and looked at the cliff face. A large tarantula was climbing the rocks and moving closer to him. He shot straight up into the air in sheer fright as the spider reared up.

"The hell?" Jai muttered, looking to where Chris had finally stopped about a thousand feet up in the air.

"Jai freeze," Roy commanded. Jai did so and watched as Roy notched an arrow and pointed it towards him. He didn't flinch when the arrow flew and bounced off the rocks next to him. "Dude's an arachnophobe?" Roy queried after letting Jai know that it was safe to move again. Jai looked at the arrow at his feet and grimaced. The largest spider he'd ever seen was twitching around the arrowhead that had impaled it.

"I'll never tease you about spiders again, Chris," Jai called out to the Kryptonian.

High above the canyon, Chris shuddered as the dark memories of his childhood muttered in the back of his mind. "They can't hurt you…not here," he murmured over and over again as he tried to get the shuddering under control. A gunshot rang out and Chris snapped his head up to see where it had come from. He heard a squawk as a large eagle flying on the other side of the canyon was hit. "No," he breathed, racing forward to try and catch the bird before it hit the ground.

On the ground, Lian was pointing towards the southeast to indicate where the shot had come from. Roy looked up and saw Chris fly overhead towards the settlement with the eagle. "Irey, get Dane and Carrie back to the village and alert Evan." Iris let Dane take point as she covered their rear and escorted them to safety after calling out to Nefertiti to follow her. The little grey cat scrambled down to Iris and ran ahead of the three humans. "You guys are with me," Roy told the remaining teenagers. "Mila?" Milagro grabbed Roy and Jai with her power ring and floated them across to her side of the canyon.

"Most likely came up the gully, Dad," Lian stated. Roy nodded and voiced a plan to the teenagers as they stealthily made their way to where the shot had sounded from.

"Power up Mila. If they shoot, I want them to have an invulnerable target," Roy commanded. Milagro nodded and let her costume flow over her form. A faint aura materialised around her and the others that she assured them was bulletproof.

Evan Smiling Water was slowing to a stop at the mouth of the canyon when he spied his mother, brother, and Iris coming out. "I was just visiting with David when your friend brought in a shot bird," he explained as he got out of his truck.

"Roy took the rest of the kids to try and catch the culprit," Carrie told her son.

"I can take you to Roy and the others," Chris stated, as he landed next to Evan in full costume. Evan nodded and held a hand up for a moment as he called over his radio.

"Okay, I have deputies coming in from town and they know to look for you here," he instructed his mother. Carrie gave him a wave as Chris lifted off with Evan.

Roy and Lian had both just launched arrows as Chris and Evan found them near the gully. "We disabled the tyres, but no sign of our shooter," Roy said as Chris set Evan down. Chris scanned the surrounding area and pointed to a curved cliff.

"There's two of them and they know they're had," he stated.

"Secure them, while we secure the truck," Roy told him. Chris tore off towards the two poachers as Milagro floated the others down to the disabled vehicle.

"Holy shit…don't touch anything," Evan commanded as he looked inside the truck. There were several dead birds in the back, all of them illegally poached. Two masculine screams alerted them that Chris had secured his targets. "You can move this truck without touching it, right?" he asked Milagro.

"Si," she replied and aimed her ring at the truck. A large platform materialised under the flattened tyres and clamps swung up to secure the truck to the platform. "Hop on," she said, as a second platform appeared out of thin air. Milagro flew them to the mouth of the canyon where the backup Evan had called in were just arriving. Chris gently drifted to the ground with his captives that the deputies quickly secured. Evan quickly identified that the truck belonged to one of the two men and had them arrested on suspicion of poaching. Once they'd been taken away, Roy had the kids head back to Carrie's house.

Night fell and they were gathered around a large fire. Roy studied Chris who had been in a sombre mood ever since the canyon. "Want to tell me why a Kryptonian is afraid of spiders?" he asked. Chris cringed. Roy almost began to think that he wasn't going to get his answer when Chris sighed and hung his head.

"In the Phantom Zone where I was born…" he murmured. "There are these creatures called dozhehlod, in Kryptonian. The word roughly translates to 'dark being'."

"Go on," Roy encouraged.

"Dozhehlod resemble your Earth spiders," Chris explained. "Only they're the size of a large delivery truck." Jai cringed at the thought as did several others. "The General and Ursa would…" Chris swallowed as he recalled the cruel threats his birth parents would use to keep him in line. "They would threaten to leave me for the dozhehlod to find if I misbehaved." Lian took his hand in hers and leaned on him as tears threatened to spill from Chris' eyes.

"That's a very valid reason to fear spiders," Damian murmured.

"No shit," Roy agreed. "I forget sometimes that you really aren't Clark and Lois' biological child," he added. Chris sniffled and looked up. "You're so much like the Kent's, that it is easy to forget," Roy stated.

"Ever since Mom and Dad took me in, I've been afraid of spiders," Chris admitted. "Despite the fact that I know they can't hurt me here. I just keep seeing…" Chris held his hand near his head and frowned. "I just keep seeing these shadowy monsters."

"Do you trust me?" Roy asked. Chris narrowed his eyes warily. "No I'm not going to force you into a locked room full of the things," Roy assured him. "I couldn't even if I tried anyway. But I think I can help you tolerate spiders better than you do now."

"How?"

"Let me talk to Raven. I think with her help, you can at least beat the abject fear you have," Roy said. Chris nodded.

"I'll try anything at this point," he murmured.

A coyote cried out into the night and Damian reached for Nefertiti. Roy and Lian both cocked their ears toward the sound as it rang out again. "It's not sick," Lian said.

Roy shook his head. "Nope. Just mom calling out to the kids." A second call rang out and Lian and Roy both turned to stare into the darkness where the new cry had come from. "That one is sick though," Roy murmured. "Chris, can you spot anything?" he asked, pointing towards where he was trying to spot movement.

Chris narrowed his eyes and scanned the edge of the village towards the north. "I see it," he said a moment later. "Rabies means they're all frothing and drooling foam all over the place, right?"

"Uh-huh," Roy said, standing up and reaching for his handgun.

"Half a mile out that way," Chris pointed. "And it's heading this way." Damian took Nefertiti into the coach as Roy tried to spot the coyote.

"I see it now," Roy muttered a moment later as he aimed for the sick animal.

"He's heading for the aviary," Chris added.

"You're positive that it's foaming bad?" Roy asked.

"Oh yeah. Poor guy has it bad," Chris replied.

Roy followed the coyote through the sight on his gun as it moved closer to the aviary. Once in the clear, he could see that it was indeed rabid. Murmuring a prayer in Diné Bizaad, Roy took his shot. The coyote fell without a sound.

"What are you shooting at?" Evan asked as he came outside from the house a moment later.

"Got your rabid coyote. Over by the aviary," Roy replied.

Evan pointed his flashlight and spotted the dead coyote. "I'll get David to check it out," he said as he headed for the aviary.

"Did you have to shoot it?" Iris grimaced from by the fire.

"It was dying, Irey. There's no cure for rabies," Roy replied, smoothing his hand over her hair.

"Is it possible that it was the one Carrie warned about?" Damian asked as he stepped from the coach. He was tending to a wound on his hand. "The one that's been snatching pets?"

"It's possible," Roy sighed. "Cat nailed you?" he asked when he saw Damian wince in pain as he finished wrapping his hand.

"She startled a bit when you fired," he replied sourly.

"She's hiding, isn't she?" Milagro piped up. Carrie and Dane were coming outside to join them just then.

"Yes. Under your bed."

"Poor kitty doesn't like gunfire, huh?" Carrie asked, taking a seat next to Milagro. Dane wandered over to where Lian was sitting and sat down beside her. Damian shook his head no, as he took his place beside Iris. Evan returned a while later and sat beside his mother. Night wore on and the team was treated to the traditional songs and stories of the Navajo. Lian and Roy took turns with Carrie and her sons, or sang along with them.

The following morning, Lian had gotten her teammates up and led them to the community centre, where they joined Dane. Dane had them separate out the school supplies they'd brought with them, into individual bags for each student on the reservation. "Mom and Roy are going around to each house and letting them know that there's stuff here for the kids," Dane said as he reached the bottom of the pile. "What the…?"

"We can return those if you want," Lian teased as Dane gaped at the teacher supplies.

"No. No…I'm sure I can find a use for them, Little Living Ghost," Dane chuckled as he reached over to hug Lian.

"Hello?" David called out from just outside the door. He stepped in and spied Dane and the Titans on the floor with the supplies. "Wow. You brought those with you?" he asked. Lian nodded.

"Here you go," Dane said, handing over two bags to David.

"Thank you. Lily and Nate will appreciate these when they get back," David replied.

"Where'd they go?" Lian asked.

"They went with Gabe to meet some friends of his up in Colorado," David smiled. "You guys are heading out tomorrow, right?" he asked.

"Yep. Death Valley here we come!" Jai grinned.

"Bring Nefertiti around at about five and I'll get that vet cert for her," David told Damian.

"Thank you," Damian nodded.

Chris went with Damian to take Nefertiti to David. Chris was holding her and smirked when she realised that she was in a veterinarian's office. "Claw all you like, Cat. It ain't happening," he teased as she struggled to get free. David spoke to her with a soothing voice in Diné Bizaad as he petted her, while Chris held her. Damian raised his eyebrows in surprise as Nefertiti seemed to calm down after a little bit. David continued talking to her as he took her from Chris and set her down on the table to begin her check up. "Cat whisperer?" Chris murmured to Damian.

"So it would seem," Damian replied softly as David quickly examined her.

"There you go. You're a good girl," David told Nefertiti as he wrapped up his exam. He gave her a few treats and she purred as she devoured them.

"How in the Hell did you get her to calm down?" Damian asked. "Her vet back home refers to her as Ms Grumpy…for obvious reasons," he added, holding up his wounded hand.

"Navajo secret," David winked. "And there you go," he added, scrawling his signature across the certificate.

"That's it. I'm bringing her here from now on," Damian muttered as Nefertiti hopped down from the table to curl around his ankles. "Thank you," he said as David handed him the vet certificate.

"Not a problem. You okay?" David asked Chris.

Chris smirked and held out his arms for David to see. "Not a dent. Good try though," he said looking down at the cat.

David held his up as Damian got out his wallet. "Nope. Fair trade. Vet cert for school supplies," he stated.

"You're certain?" Damian asked.

"You saved me a six hour round trip drive. I'm positive," David told him.

"Is that your family, there?" Chris asked, indicating a photo on the nearby desk.

"Yep," David beamed, picking up the photograph. "Their Mom passed shortly after Lily was born," he added.

"I'm so sorry," Damian murmured. Chris offered his condolences as well.

David thanked them and shook his head. "We don't question the Great Spirit when he brings one of us home," he explained. "Gabe's a lot like her," he added. David explained how his eldest son was a lecturer on Navajo culture. "Nate…who knows where his path will lead him? Lily's will most likely lead her here."

"In a moment," Damian said as Nefertiti squawked up at him. She tapped her tail on the floor for a few seconds before reaching out to swat him on the ankle. "Fine, come on," he told her. "Thank you again," Damian told David as he headed for the door. Nefertiti bounded outside and Damian followed, muttering under his breath.

"She's got him wrapped around her little paw," David chuckled.

"Mmhmm," Chris replied. "How's the eagle…from yesterday?" he asked, changing the subject. David sighed.

"Looks like Cloud's getting a roommate," he replied. "I had to take off most of his left wing, because the bones were obliterated. There was no saving it."

"Zhor," Chris stated suddenly. "It means 'heart' in Kryptonian. I think it would be a good name."

"I like it," David mused. He asked Chris to spell it and wrote it down on a chart on his desk. Chris asked if he could visit the birds in the aviary and David led him through to the massive cage. Chris spied a smaller cage that Zhor was recuperating in and wandered over.

"Zhor nim raogrhys," he murmured to the eagle. David cocked a curious eyebrow as Chris murmured to Zhor in Kryptonian for a few minutes longer.

"What did you tell them?" David asked after Chris rose and spoke to the other residents of the aviary briefly.

"Basically told them all to be strong and get better," Chris admitted. "I told Zhor that he was safe here and to live a good life."

David smirked. "Ah-sheh'heh," he thanked. "I'm sure they appreciated it from an atsáh-hasteen."

"I know what ah-sheh'heh means…what is the other one?" Chris asked.

"Atsáh-hasteen. It means eagle man," David supplied. "Consider it our name for you."

"Nah kluv," Chris thanked, bowing his head to David. Chris stayed for a while and helped David tend to the eagles.

"You're in a good mood," Lian noted when Chris returned to the others after the sun had set.

"Considering David just gave me a Navajo name," Chris chuckled. "Atsáh-hasteen," he added, when Lian cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Eagle man. Appropriate coming from the Atsáh-hah-tah'lih," she mused. "Eagle doctor," Lian translated a moment later.

The following morning the Titans were getting ready to leave and saying their farewells. "I'll be back next week," Lian said as she hugged her father.

"Goodie! We can head to Crazy Horse then," Carrie grinned. Roy just rolled his eyes.

"Drive safe. Behave. And any other responsible crap I'm supposed to say," Roy muttered as the teenagers got into the coach and land rover. Carrie waved and Roy flashed them a peace sign as they drove away, calling out their final farewells and thanks. "What?" Roy asked Carrie as she gave him a stern look.

"Don't even think about snaking away before Lian returns," she scolded. She laughed as Roy scoffed and turned away muttering under his breath.

_A/N: I actually looked up Kryptonian and Diné Bizaad dictionaries for all the stuff Chris and David say in this near the end. Yes, I'm that sad._


	8. Home Sweet Home

Road Trip – Home Sweet Home

_A/N: Cue Mötley Crüe power ballad. ^^ The final chapter to this story takes them to a place that is truly a treasure and has a special place in my heart, before finally heading home to Titan's Tower in San Francisco. For the record, the opening scene in this chapter is one of the first I imagined when the story idea for Road Trip first hit me. _

"Vegas!"

"No!"

"Vegas!"

"Shut up Jai."

"Vegas!"

"You need to be twenty one to gamble in Las Vegas and guess what? None of us are twenty one, so there," Chris stated.

"Pfft," Jai snorted. "All of us have fake ID's saying that we're at least twenty two." He took a deep breath and Damian snapped.

"Fine! Twenty minutes," he growled.

"Seriously?" Jai grinned.

"You are not caving to him, are you?" Iris asked in disgust.

"It's that, or figure out how to explain to your parents that I had to murder your twin in cold blood," Damian muttered darkly.

"It's cool, they'll totally understand," Iris countered.

Jai gaped at his sister. "That's twin treason," he accused.

"So?" Iris scoffed.

Damian interrupted before the West twins could really get going at each other. "Any particular den of vice that you have in mind?" he asked Jai.

"Caesars! That joint's a classic," Jai grinned. Damian gave him a bewildered look. "I could have said the Luxor," Jai smirked.

"Caesars Palace it is," Damian sighed.

In the land rover, Lian and Milagro shared a wry look. "I say we ditch them and go shopping for the collection," Milagro suggested.

"Deal," Lian agreed.

They parked the coach in a large lot on the edge of town and after putting in coloured contacts to disguise himself, Damian and the others piled into the land rover. Damian expertly navigated the traffic clogged streets to get them to Caesars Palace in a little over ten minutes. He wanted to get this over and done with.

"Gaudy as hell gift shop, right there," Lian pointed out. She and Milagro grabbed hands and went in search of treasures to torment Damian with. Damian spied a bar and headed straight for it. Chris sighed along with Iris as they followed Jai towards the slot machines. Chris found a spot where he could see all of his teammates and lingered there. Damian was watching Jai and Iris from the bar as he sipped on his water.

"What are you doing?" Iris asked, as Jai waggled his fingers near the slot machines,

"Using the techno voodoo to find one that'll make love to me…financially," he replied. Iris groaned and rolled her eyes. "Techno sense tingling," he purred and slid a twenty dollar bill into a machine.

"Besides there being no such thing as techno voodoo, that's what you get if you hit the jackpot?" Iris mused as she looked at the brightly lit display.

"Uh- huh," Jai replied. "Okay max bet," he murmured. "Nope." The reels came up empty. "Nope." Again the reels came up blank. "Arms. Mother. Fucking. Up!" he crowed as the reels hit the jackpot.

"Oh my God, you're kidding?" Iris gaped.

"Nope. What was that about there being no such thing as techno voodoo?" Jai smirked as he hit the cash out button. A light blinked on at the top of the slot machine as Jai pulled his wallet out and fished out his fake ID. "I have to fill out tax forms before they'll cash that out," he added as Iris continued to gape at the large amount her brother had just won.

"Did he seriously just win?" Chris asked, as he joined the twins. Iris muttered an affirmative noise and pointed to the jackpot. "Holy crap! You're so paying for everything for the rest of this trip."

"What the hell is going on over there?" Damian murmured.

"Looks like Jai hit big," Lian commented as she and Milagro joined him.

"I trust you two did as well?" Damian asked. He'd long since given up trying to deter their souvenir hobby on the trip. "Oh good God," he groaned when they held the open bags out for him to look in. Chris, Iris, and Jai soon joined them after the casino attendant had cashed out the jackpot. "You're paying from here on out," Damian smirked at Jai.

"Fine by me," Jai grinned.

"Oh good to hear…silence payment please?" Iris grinned, holding out her hand to Jai.

"Silence what?" Jai scoffed.

"Well gee Mom; I have to admit I know…" Jai shrank a little in fear. "Absolutely nothing about where Jai got all the new toys from," Iris finished as Jai peeled off a few hundred dollar bills and handed them over to his sister.

They left the casino and after Jai and Lian paused to make a joke about an old movie near one of the fountains, they got back into the land rover and headed back to the coach. "According to the map, there's some mountains we have to go up and over to get into the park," Chris stated as they decided on who was driving.

"I got the bus," Milagro volunteered.

"I'll take the truck," Lian added.

They were stopped on the other side of the state line at a check point and Damian handed over the vet cert David had given him the day before, for Nefertiti. Satisfied that they didn't have anything the check point was looking for, the teens were waved through. At the top of the mountain pass, they found a rest area to pull off into, that looked out over the valley far below.

"Wow," Chris said.

"It is so much bigger than I thought it was," Milagro murmured.

"And most of that is below sea level." Jai chimed in, reading from his minicomputer.

They all piled back into their vehicles and began the long descent into the famed valley. Damian was riding shotgun with Lian and directed them to where they would be staying for their visit. On the coach, Iris opened and the door and flinched back when the hot air assaulted her. "Wow, it's like a blast furnace!"

"No kidding," Damian agreed as he and Lian hurried into the coach.

"That's why evening and early mornings are good times to do any really physical exploring around here," Lian added. "Of course summer is the dumbest time of the year to come to Death Valley," she added with a roll of her eyes.

"So we're hitting Bad Water in the morning then?" Jai asked.

"Definitely," Lian replied.

"So…we're passing the time, how?" Chris piped up. Jai smirked and rummaged in a drawer near his bunk. He turned quickly to face the others and flashed three decks of cards from a new game that had rocketed to popularity. "Oh bring it!" Chris declared, and dug around in his backpack for his own deck.

"I blame Jason," Damian smirked when he produced his own deck, much to the surprise of the others.

They decided on a set of rules, as they all played the game differently and after getting refreshments, they sat in a circle on the floor and began playing. Lian declared early on that tears would be shed, judging by the way some of them played. Chris was almost brought to tears after Damian narrowly beat him in a particularly hard fought round between the two of them.

"I hate bats," Chris muttered as Damian gloated over his victory. He perked up a bit when Nefertiti attacked the pile of cards Damian was sorting through.

Jai patted him on the shoulder and dealt out the next round. "Hey, could someone turn on a light…wait wha?" he murmured as they all looked up. The sun had just set behind the mountains.

"No wonder I'm starving," Iris laughed, checking her watch. "We've been trying to destroy each other for over six hours."

"No one can accuse us of not being slacking teenagers," Damian remarked. He winced when he got to his feet and tried to work a knot out of his back. A loud pop and a surprised look on Damian's face told the others that the knot had been worked out.

"Hey, it's cooled down a bit," Milagro said as she poked her head out the door.

"Are we even going to bother with cooking dinner?" Jai asked as he watched his sister putting together a rather large sandwich. Iris looked up and blinked at him in confusion.

"We've got left-overs," Lian stated around a yawn. "Excuse me."

"That'll work," Chris muttered. "Oh yeah it will," he grinned a moment later as he peered in the fridge.

"Dibs on two of those drumsticks, Pal," Iris told him.

Chris contemplated the chicken and then Iris a few times before deciding to give in to her request. They each got their own dinner and headed outside to eat. The sluggishness they were feeling hadn't worn off and they were soon dropping off to sleep. Damian woke several hours later after a rather vivid dream and sat up with a groan. Stepping outside, Damian judged it to be an hour or so after midnight, going by the night sky. He clasped his hands together and raised them above his head to stretch. The cool night air felt good against the bare skin of his torso.

"Woof, woof," Iris chuckled softly. Damian let his hands drop as he looked around for her.

"What are you doing?" he asked, once he spotted her in the back of the land rover.

"Reading," she replied, holding up a digital reader for him to see. "I was so tired that I managed to get a real good sleep on," she added. Recalling the dream that had woken him, Damian climbed onto the open tail gate and over towards where Iris was seated. "Hi," she managed to get out, as he took the reader from her and set it aside.

"Hi," he replied before claiming her lips with his. Iris managed to giggle into the kiss as she threw her arms around his neck.

It was still dark out when Jai woke up. He slipped from his bunk and drifted towards the fresh pot of coffee. Glancing around, he noticed that he was not the first one up. "D's up already? Figures," he muttered.

"He was gone when I woke up," Chris replied with a groan as he stretched. "Okay I'm up," he added and drifted for the door.

In the master suite, Lian and Milagro were both waking as well. "When did Irey get up?" Lian queried.

"Who knows? Chica can get a full night's sleep in an hour," Milagro shrugged as she dug out an outfit for the day. The two paused when they heard Chris laugh suddenly. Listening in for a moment, they glanced at each other, before dropping what they were doing and heading out to the main part of the coach.

Jai stared wide eyed as Chris bounded back into the coach a few seconds after leaving. "I found D," he laughed. "And your sister." Jai managed to keep most of his coffee from spraying everywhere as he laughed. He was wiping coffee from his chin when the door to the master suite flew open and Lian and Milagro rushed out. Chris waved to the pair with a wide grin and jerked his thumb towards the land rover. The four of them went outside and sure enough they found their missing comrades, spooned together and sleeping in the back of the land rover.

"I'm gonna be a dick!" Jai cackled and held up a camera. The flash was bright in the pre-dawn and it woke Damian and Iris. Damian raised his middle finger up and Jai howled in laughter.

"How'd you like to get your ass kicked at mach nine?" Iris asked her twin as she got out of the land rover.

Jai wasn't the slightest bit threatened. "Do I need to get the black light out?" He was bent over, clutching the back of his head a second later. "Ow that fucking hurt," he hissed.

"Nothing happened," Iris growled. She shot Lian and Milagro a dirty look as the two struggled to keep from laughing out loud. Shaking her head, Iris went inside to get cleaned up for the day.

"Nothing except a little necking," Chris teased. Damian narrowed his eyes at Chris.

"Kryptonian or not, I can still cause you immense pain," he warned darkly. He proved his point as he passed Jai and hit a sensitive pressure point.

"Fuck!" Jai swore, clutching at his shoulder where Damian had barely tapped him.

"I was wondering when the violence was going to begin," Lian laughed as she checked on Jai.

"You three are my witnesses," Chris piped up.

"For what?" Milagro asked.

"I had a bet going with Kon and Kara about whether we'd catch those two or not," Chris grinned. "I don't have to do chores when I get back to Smallville," he added in a sing song voice as he did an awkward victory dance.

"Huh?"

"They've been making out the whole trip," Chris informed them.

"Seriously?" Jai gaped. Chris nodded.

"Mad ninja stealth skills aside…I'm Kryptonian, I could still hear them," he stated. Jai cringed in horror as Chris' words sank in. "No they didn't…thank God," he added. Jai sagged a little in relief.

"They'd sneak off to be together and you knew the whole time?" Lian asked.

Chris nodded. "Twice at Granma's. That's how the bet came about."

"We've gotcha, Ese," Milagro grinned.

An hour later, the morning's incident had been mostly forgotten as they set off for the lowest point in the Americas. The salt flat at Bad Water stretched out before them as they piled out of the land rover. The sun had only just risen and they were shielding their eyes from the bright white of the salt.

"Not as smooth as Bonneville," Chris commented, as they walked out onto the cracked and ragged flats.

"That's all the same handwriting isn't it?" Jai asked as he looked at a myriad of greetings scratched into the salt, in many different languages.

"It is," Damian confirmed.

Jai counted the many greetings and raised his eyebrows in appreciation. "A greeter at the UN was here?" he speculated.

"How many are there?" Lian asked.

"Thirty seven." Lian let out an impressed whistle.

"Hey we're the only ones here, right?" Milagro suddenly piped up. She'd spied something that caught her eye. Chris tilted his head and listened for a moment before confirming that no one else was about. Milagro pointed her ring at the cliff face nearby and rose into the air. Once she was level with the small sign she'd spotted, she looked down at the others. "According to that sign, I'm at sea level," she called out. The other's shielded their eyes as they tried to spot the sign mounted high up the cliff.

Chris flew up to meet Milagro and looked down. "Two hundred and eighty two feet is a long way down," he commented.

"Wow," Iris murmured as she looked around. "And most of this basin is way below that."

"Hey Irey, it looks smoother further out if you wanna floor it," Chris said as he floated back down to the ground. Iris jogged a ways from the others before pouring on the speed.

"She's not going that fast," Jai murmured as he watched the salt plume indicating his sister. Iris slowed to a jog and then walked the rest of the way back to her friends.

"The salt's nowhere near as thick as Bonneville," she said. "Definitely no dirt bike racing here."

"Speaking of racing. I want to go see the Racetrack," Lian piped up.

"Let's go," Damian suggested and they headed back to the land rover. After a short drive they arrived at a surreal mudflat with long lines cutting across it. "No one has figured out how that happens?" Damian asked as they wandered over to one of the lines and the rock at the end of it.

"Nope," Jai replied.

"There's no way the wind could have blown that rock across the mud," Lian stated. Chris was shaking his head.

"Rock's too big and the channel's deep. It should have gotten stuck ages ago."

"Yeah, this ground's baked solid," Milagro added, tapping the ground with her foot. "And its super flat here, so gravity isn't responsible."

"The aliens did it," Iris laughed.

Chris held his hands up. "Don't look at me. I can think of way more fun things to do with my powers than drag rocks along dry mudflats," he stated.

They wandered around a bit more before heading to another area in the park. A park ranger was stopped on the side of the road nearby and greeted them. Milagro grinned when she heard his accent and replied back in Spanish. The ranger and Milagro chatted away as the others wandered towards the colourful cliffs. Lian spotted something on the ground and headed for it. "Oh. My. God," she stammered once she realised what it was.

Damian heard her and wandered over. He spied the odd rock that Lian was staring at and chuckled. "What is it?"

"About twenty grand worth of turquoise," Lian replied. "About as big as Chris' forearm."

"We know it's there," the ranger called out to Lian, good naturedly.

"Can I at least admire it longingly?" Lian called back. The ranger chuckled and said she could look at it as long as she liked. Lian heard Milagro howl in laughter a moment later and figured that the ranger had told her what Lian had spotted.

Curious, Chris ambled over to see what was going on. He could easily spot the turquoise and narrowed his eyes at it. Damian watched from the corner of his eye and smirked along with Chris. "You can't just pick that up. That's only the tip of the iceberg."

"Excuse me?" Lian muttered.

"The bulk of its underground," he replied.

"Excuse me?"

Chris leaned back a little as he looked at it with his x-ray vision. "About three…three and half feet down. It's big."

"What was your original estimate?" Damian teased.

"I hate you both," Lian muttered darkly. She kissed the tips of her fingers and placed them on the exposed piece of rock. She thanked the spirits for their gift of beauty before heading off to find Iris and Jai. "Assholes," she added when she heard Chris and Damian laughing behind her.

"Hey Lian? There's all these trippy blue-green rocks all over the place, any idea what they are?" Iris asked when Lian joined them.

"Are you serious?" Lian growled.

"What?" Jai snapped. "We're just asking. You're the expert."

Lian huffed a sigh. "Fine, sorry. Its turquoise," she replied.

"Seriously? Cool!" Jai grinned. Lian let her head fall back before turning to head for the land rover. "Is she surfing the crimson this week?" Jai asked his sister.

"Do you have to be so crude?" Iris sneered.

"Can you come up with a better explanation for what just happened?" Jai answered honestly, waving a hand to where Lian was walking. Iris shrugged as she conceded his point.

"What are those two doing?" Iris asked a moment later as she spied Chris and Damian. Chris was kneeling down and resting his forearm on the ground while Damian took pictures.

"Who knows?" Jai murmured as the twins headed for the land rover. They met up with Chris and Damian and soon the West twins forgave Lian her attitude from earlier. "It burned her to leave it didn't it?" Jai laughed.

"Part of her is dying inside," Chris admitted with a chuckle.

"That's a big chunk of turquoise," Iris mused as she looked at the photo. "Ouch," she laughed after Chris gave her an idea of just how big it was.

"We just drove here yesterday from a Navajo reservation I grew up on, in Arizona," Lian was telling the ranger, when the others arrived.

"Ah, so that's how you knew what that was," he chuckled. Lian nodded. They talked with the ranger for a couple more minutes before heading back to the coach.

"Hey, our pass lets us use the pool at the resort, right?" Jai was asking.

"Yes," Damian replied.

"I'm going swimming," he grinned.

They stayed at the pool until just after noon, when the heat became too much for most of them. Chris was humming in pleasure as he soaked up the brilliant sunshine. Jai reported a little later about how hot it was predicted to get and they all cringed in the cool air conditioning of the coach. "You probably couldn't put a dent in the power," Chris teased and Jai took that as a challenge. Damian would occasionally check the power supply as Jai, Lian, and Chris played video games.

"Barely a percentile," Damian teased when Jai asked later how much they'd drained the power. They made a light supper and ate it outside once the sun had set. They stayed up to watch the stars until nearly midnight before retiring for the night. The following morning they would leave the valley and head home for San Francisco.

Many of the senior Titans were gathered at the tower, awaiting the arrival of the weary travellers the following day. They had pulled out a favourite game to pass the time with as they waited. Traci was nearly sliding off the sofa in hysterics as she held up the winning card. "Whoever put that down, I bloody love you!"

"Muchas gracias, Chica," Jaime chuckled. "The feeling's totally mutual by the way," he added with a sly smirk.

"So when she isn't wiping the floor with us, she's letting her boyfriend win," Tam scoffed.

"Fiancé," Tim corrected.

"Whatever," Tam laughed, playfully smacking her husband.

"Gods, I hate this game," Cassie chuckled.

"That's because you're not twisted enough," Kara teased her friend. Cassie poked her tongue at Kara.

"Yeah, you're too nice for this game," Bart added. "At least the way we play it." It was his turn to judge and he selected a card from the green pile. "Okay…Traci's not winning this one if I can help it," he declared.

"Watch me," she grinned. "I'm fluent in Yank and proper English…I own you all!"

"Oh she did not just go there," Connor snorted.

"Dude, she slams me with that one all the time," Jaime retorted.

Bart cleared his throat. "Cuddly. Something too many of you are being right now," he stated. He placed the card down and stared at Traci with narrowed eyes. She waved her fingers at him and placed her card down.

"I see that the chick who speaks Queen's English is kicking your collective asses…as usual," Jai stated as he leaned over the back of one of the sofas.

"When did you guys creep in?" Kara asked in surprise as the senior Titans all looked up at the teenagers wandering into the sitting room. Lian ambled over to where she was and crawled onto the sofa next to her. Kara adjusted a little as she lay down and put her head on her lap.

"Just now," Damian sighed. He wandered over to Tam and flopped down beside her, leaning back and closing his eyes. Nefertiti hopped up onto the back of the sofa and promptly fell asleep behind Tim's head.

"You guys look waxed," Bart commented as Iris cuddled up next to him.

"There's an understatement," Chris muttered, before falling face forward onto one of the empty sofas that Connor was leaning against. Connor looked over his shoulder and chuckled when he heard Chris starting to snore softly.

"Andale," Milagro told her brother with a jerk of her thumb. Jaime moved to sit on the floor so she could curl up on the end of the sofa.

"You drove straight up from Death Valley?" Traci asked, running her fingers through Milagro's hair.

"Yup," Jai replied. He hopped over the back of the sofa and flopped down on her other side. "Stopped for about fifteen minutes for lunch just outside of Los Gatos," he added, leaning away from Traci and placing his head on Jenni's shoulder.

"So I take it we're not dealing you guys in?" Tam teased. She got a negative shake of the head from Damian as he started to lean against her and fall asleep.

"How about we call this round and then let them sleep in peace?" Jenni suggested as Jai started to fall asleep on her.

"Good plan," Bart agreed. He picked up the pile of red cards and sorted through them. "Okay, who had 'barbed wire'?" Traci flashed a toothy grin and held her hand out towards him. "Shit!" he chuckled and handed over the 'cuddly' card. Jai flashed a middle finger at his cousin and muttered something about Traci knowing all of Bart's trump cards.

"I know everyone's trump cards, Sweetie," she teased.

"I'll say," Cassie muttered as she helped Connor and Jaime pack up the game.

"How about we just let them rest," Tim suggested, as he helped Tam untangle from Damian.

"Can you 'port us over to the garage? We might as well grab their stuff," Bart asked Traci, as he carefully laid Iris out. Once the teenagers were settled, the senior Titans gathered around Traci so she could teleport them to the private garage where the trip had started from.

"They're in need of a good scrub," Tam chuckled when she got a good look at the coach and land rover.

"I want to see how bad the collection got," Tim said as he opened the door to the coach. "Oh my God," he laughed. "Don't touch anything. I'm getting pictures first." Tim held his smart phone up and clicked a dozen pictures of the interior of the coach before giving the okay to his teammates.

"Ay Dios…they didn't even have half this crap in El Paso, a week and a half ago," Jaime exclaimed when he saw the gaudy souvenirs scattered around the coach.

"Where'd the tequila come from?" Connor asked, holding up the bottle.

"Juarez," Traci replied.

"You didn't say anything?" Tim teased Jaime. Jaime gave him a look.

"Ese, Milagro knows too much," he reminded his friend.

"Oh, good point," Bart winced. Connor and Tim also winced in agreement.

"Milagro knows too much about what?" Cassie asked.

"That they're not the first to take advantage of the fact that casa Reyes is about fifty feet from Mexico," Traci smirked.

"Where it's perfectly legal to get hammered at the tender age of eighteen," Kara added with a chuckle. "Isn't that right?" she added to her cousin.

"Oh do tell," Cassie grinned.

"We had a ball…what I can remember of it," Bart admitted.

"There's a reason Tim doesn't like tequila," Jaime laughed. Tim groaned while Tam folded her arms across her chest and gave him a teasing look.

"Never, ever, ever again," Tim muttered. "Dear God."

"Paco still laughs his ass off about that," Jaime said.

"This sounds like a story for later," Cassie stated. Kara smothered a laugh behind her hand as she agreed.

"On another note, what are we going to do about all their trinkets?" Kara asked. "I mean this is too good to just put away."

"How about that big bare space next to the entertainment centre?" Tam suggested.

"Sold," Traci replied, snapping her fingers and pointing at Tam. The two women were left in charge of rounding up the souvenirs and taking them back to the Tower. Traci left Tam alone to arrange the collection as she teleported back to the garage to help with the rest of the clean up.

In the master suite, Tim was fiddling with a wall in the small closet. "There's a hidden panel in here," he murmured. "There," he said, popping it open and revealing the teen's costumes. "Milagro was wearing her ring, right?"

"I think so," Connor replied as he accepted the costumes and weapons from Tim. "Hey Jaime? Mila had her ring on, right?"

"Si," Jaime called out from the bunk area, where he was gathering Jai's belongings. "Kahji was nice enough to hiss in my ear about it." Tim and Connor laughed in the master suite.

Kara floated up to the window of the master suite. "Truck's cleaned out, Tim," she said. "I guess Lian was driving," she added as she handed a throwing knife and sai through to Connor.

"Okay thanks," he replied. "Can you start flying their bags back to the Tower?" he asked, and Kara gave a wave. "I was wondering where those were," he added, as he closed the hidden compartment in the closet. Jaime had brought some of Jai's weapons in when he'd found them earlier.

"You patted Damian down," Connor asked as he packed the gear away. Tim nodded and said that he knew where Damian's missing knives and utility belt were. "That's everything then," Connor added. He handed the packed bag through the window to Kara.

"Kitchen's cleared out," Bart stated, poking his head through the door. "They kept the place pretty spotless, so it won't take Jenni and me any time at all to do the cleaning."

"We've almost cleared everything out here," Tim said. A little while later, they were gathered outside next to everything they'd cleaned out of the coach. "I'll go with Traci back to the Tower with this lot," Tim stated. "You guys have those, right?" he asked, indicating the two vehicles.

"Yup," Cassie replied. Traci teleported herself and Tim back to the Tower while the remaining Titans turned to wash the coach and land rover. They finished not long after and headed for home.

It was evening when the teenagers began to stir in the sitting room at the Tower. "You're kidding me," Damian muttered, when he spied the souvenir collection proudly on display.

"Oh cool!" Milagro grinned, as she spotted the collection.

"They cleaned everything out already?" Iris asked around a yawn.

"Didn't take long, you guys kept things pretty tidy," Tim complimented as he wandered in.

"We did?" Chris and Jai both asked incredulously. Tim chuckled.

"Once we took all of that out, the place was pretty clean," he was indicating the collection with his thumb as he spoke. "Anyway, dinner is going to be ready soon, so if you're interested, we're out on the patio." Tim left them to wake up fully.

"You have to admit, that trip was a good idea," Lian piped up as she admired the neatly arranged souvenirs.

"We need to do that again," Chris suggested. He groaned and stretched as he stood up.

"Next year," Damian murmured sleepily. Nefertiti finished stretching on the back of the sofa and came over to give Damian's ear a lick. He reached up to give her a scratch behind the ear.

"Deal!" Iris stated. "Okay I'm starving!" she added and grabbed Jai's backpack as she dashed off.

"Hey! Careful with that," he admonished as he and the others followed at a more sedate pace.

Iris pulled Jai's laptop from the backpack and Jai hooked it up to the television. "We had a freaking blast, but I am glad that it's over," he stated, as he showed the others their pictures from the trip.

"What were you doing in the cornfield in the rain?" Tim asked. Martha Kent had snapped a few shots of the bedraggled teens as they were coming in for lunch.

"Played the most wicked game of hide and seek ever," Connor laughed.

"Oh man, you went to the Air and Space museum?" Jaime asked.

"That reminds me," Milagro piped up.

"We already arranged it," Tam grinned.

"Next week, Friday," Traci added.

"I can't wait!" Milagro grinned. At the curious looks, Tam explained that she had invited Traci and Milagro to view her odd collection.

"That all came about after we hit this," Iris laughed. There were loads of pictures from the Mayan exhibit at the Smithsonian.

"Lacey was miserable that whole day when you guys left," Jenni chuckled.

"Aww," Chris murmured. "We had a ball at her place!"

"You guys hit the Alamo?" Kara asked as the old fort came onto the screen.

"We stopped overnight in San Antonio on our way to El Paso. Texas is freaking huge," Lian replied.

"How many miles did you say it was between New Orleans and El Paso?" Damian asked Jai.

"A thousand and ninety something," he replied. "Nearly eleven hundred miles."

"Jai you look so depressed," Bart commented dryly at the photo of Jai with the tequila bottle.

"I know man. I need to talk Dad into moving down to one of the border towns," Jai chuckled.

"Barely set one foot over the border before asking where the nearest bar was," Iris snorted.

"Alright, what's the story with you clowns?" Cassie asked. Milagro, Traci, and Jaime all leaned back in laughter as Bart, Connor, and Tim took turns telling about a time not long after Bart's eighteenth birthday, that they had decided to head to Mexico via El Paso.

"We figured that since Jaime's right there, that we're all good," Connor sighed.

"They were messed up!" Milagro laughed.

"Paco made sure of it," Jaime howled.

"Paco treats tequila like water," Lian scoffed.

"You mean to tell me that Tim had a brief moment of irresponsibility?" Cassie asked in amazement. "My gods, he is human!"

"Never again," Tim moaned.

"That's where your dad grew up?" Kara asked a while later. Lian nodded. "It's so beautiful."

"We got to round up some poachers too," Chris added, and told the story about the poachers.

"How come they have eagles in cages?" Tam asked.

"The tribe cares for wounded and sick birds," Lian replied. She explained how the tribe cared for the birds and got to keep any feathers that are naturally shed. "The Feds have some weird rules about it because the birds are protected. This way they can get around the law."

"Wait? How come Milagro is floating way above you guys?" Traci asked about a photo Lian had taken.

"I'm at sea level," Milagro grinned. "They were two hundred and eighty feet below me."

"Oh wow, that is impressive," Tam stated.

Chris suddenly informed his cousins that he would be chore free when he returned to Smallville with them later in the week. Damian and Iris figured out almost immediately what Chris was referring to when Connor and Kara burst out laughing. Chris immediately shot off into the sky when Damian warned that the two elder Kryptonians should spend the rest of the evening coming up with an explanation for Lois and Clark, about why their adopted son would soon be dead. Jai sought refuge with his cousins when he answered Bart's query about what the bet was and if it was something that Wally would never want to know about. Threats flew for a while but amounted to nothing as they all settled down again. It was long past midnight as the teenagers continued to regale everyone with stories from their trip.

FIN


End file.
